Effects of grain refining and modification on mechanical properties and microstructures of multielement Al—7.5Si cast alloy.docVIP

Effects of grain refining and modification on mechanical properties and microstructures of multielement Al—7.5Si cast alloy 　　Abstract. With orthogonal tests the effects of grain refiners and modifiers， Al-10Sr， rare earth（RE） and Al-Ti-5B， on the mechanical properties of Al-Si alloy for automobile cylinder blocks were studied. The best result occurred when the proportion of refiners and modifiers was Al-10Sr = 0.1wt%， RE = 0.3wt%， Al-5Ti-B = 0.8wt%. With SEM and EDS the as-cast microstructures of materials after grain refining and modification were observed and analyzed. Tiny branch-shaped AlSi phase， thin-striped AlCu phase， new small bone-shaped AlSiMn phase， new leaf-shaped or feathered B（AlCuCe） phase as well as the phases of other metal compounds made the as-cast microstructures more complicated and more compact after grain refining and modification. Some brittle phases reduced in size obviously and distributed in the grain boundaries of plastic α-phase in network， which acted as intercrystalline strengthening to certain degree. During the tensile deformation these brittle phases could reduce the stress concentration， impeded dislocation movement， and then strengthened the alloy matrix. In addition after grain refining and modification the porosity was significantly reduced. Key words： Al-Si alloy； grain refining and modification； orthogonal testing； mechanical properties； microstructures 1.Introduction With improvement of the living standard and growing of the environmental awareness， how to realize the functionality and the comfortableness of automobile and to improve vehicle on energy conservation and pollution reduction further have become the new opportunities and challenges of automotive industry. It is indicated that[1-3] transportation has consumed 40% of world crude oil. About 15% of the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels has been caused by automobile exhaust. About 60% of fuels used by automobiles are consumed for vehicle