Solidification behaviour of Al-Sn-Cu immiscible alloys and Al-Si cast alloys processed under intensive shearing

Abstract

Alloy castings are usually solidified with a coarse columnar grain structure under normal casting conditions unless the mode of the solidification is carefully controlled. It is desirable for the grain structure to be fine and equiaxed to improve their mechanical performance as finished castings. It is possible to develop a fine and equiaxed grain structure either by increasing the number of nucleation sites or by grain multiplication. Immiscible alloys with a microstructure in which a soft phase is dispersed homogeneously in a hard matrix have significant potential applications in advanced bearing systems, especially for the automotive industry. Despite considerable efforts made worldwide, including extensive space experiments, no casting techniques so far can produce the desired immiscible microstructure of alloys. Experimental results on Al-Sn-Cu immiscible alloys have confirmed that intensive shearing using melt conditioning by an advanced shearing technology (MCAST) unit, is an effective way to achieve a fine and uniform dispersion of the soft phase without macro-demixing, and that such a dispersed microstructure can be further refined in alloys with precipitation of the primary Al phase prior to the demixing reaction. In addition, it was found that melt shearing at 200 rpm for 60 s will be adequate to produce a fine and uniform dispersion of the Sn phase, and that a higher shearing speed and prolonged shearing time can only achieve further minor refinement. A study of Al-Si hypoeutectic and hypereutectic alloys presents the effects of the processing temperature and intensive shearing on the microstructural and mechanical properties which have been investigated systematically. Attempts have been made to explain the solidification mechanism with intensive melt shearing. The sheared melt was cast into tensile test samples by high pressure die caster (HPDC) to examine the microstructures and mechanical properties. The experimental results reveal that significant grain refinement and uniformity of grains was achieved by the intensive shearing and also a considerable increase in mechanical properties with pouring temperature by changing intermetallic particles morphology, the position of defect band and reduced microscopic defects.