Effect of Sc and Zr on microstructures and mechanical properties of.pdfVIP

Effect of Sc and Zr on microstructures and mechanical properties of as-cast Al-Mg-Si-Mn alloys DANG Jing-zhi(党惊知), HUANG Yu-feng(黄玉凤), CHENG Jun(程 军) School of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China Received 4 June 2008; accepted 4 October 2008 Abstract: Microstructures of as-cast Al-Mg-Si-Mn alloys with and without Sc and Zr were investigated by optical microscopy, scanning electronic microscopy(SEM) and energy dispersion spectrum analysis. Addition of 0.2%−0.4% Sc can refine the grain size and change the growth morphology from dendritic to fine equi-axial crystal. The higher the addition of Sc, the finer the as-cast grain size. The tensile strength is increased by more than 30% with 0.4% Sc. Moreover, an addition of 0.1%−0.2% Zr is able to refine grain size and change the growth morphology from dendritic to equi-axial grain too, but less effective. However, Zr is found to increase the ductility of the cast alloys, and the elongation is increased to 11.97% with 0.2% Zr. Key words: Al-Mg alloy; Sc; Zr; microstructure; mechanical properties effectively refine grain size. However, the effects of Sc 1 Introduction and Zr on microstructures and mechanical properties of as-cast Al-Mg-Si-Mn alloys have less been reported in Aluminum alloys are widely used in fields of the literatures. machinery, aviation, aerospace and automobile industries In this work, the alloying effects of Sc and Zr on due to their l