THE EFFECT OF MOULD WALL TEMPERATURE ON THE GRAIN SIZE AND MICROSTRUCTURE OF AL-5%Si ALLOY.

A.I Arogundade,* O.K. Abubakar** and R.A. Muriana*** *Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Abuja, FCT. adiatismail@yahoo.com **Mechanical Engineering Department,Federal University of Technology Minna, diranabubakre@gmail.com *** Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria. mraremu@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT The effect of mould wall temperatures, 100C, 250C, 450C on the microstructure, grain size and mechanical properties of a 5% hypoeutectic Aluminum Silicon alloy were investigated using optical microscope, standard tensile and hardness analyses. The micrographs of the three castings were studied in order to compare the grain sizes and their effects on the mechanical properties of the alloy. The casting with mould wall temperature at 100C was found to exhibit greater refinement, both at the mould wall and at the centre of the casting. It had better mechanical properties, showing 12.07% increase in hardness and 9.3% increase in Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) over the casting with mould wall at 250C; 32.04% increase in hardness; 14.9% increase in UTS over the casting with mould wall at 450C. The casting with mould wall temperature at 450C however had the highest elongation out of the three castings. Keywords: cooling rate, grain size, microstructure, mechanical properties

1.0

INTRODUCTION

Most crystalline metals and alloys are produced by the process of solidification from the liquid phase. The microstructure is determined largely by the process of solidification. Solidification rates directly affect the microstructural features of a metal such as grain size, shape and orientation in single phase systems, as well as the volume fraction, scale and distribution of each phase in multi-phase systems. These microstructural features are in turn directly related to the mechanical properties of the metal. Manipulation and control of solidification rate is therefore a common practice among material engineers to achieve desired properties in metals (Pavloric-Kristic, etal, 2009). Interaction between theory and practice in the field of solidification has been strong in recent years. Some areas of solidification where theory and practical application have advanced are dendrite arm spacing, grain size control, columnar structures, eutecticlike in-situ composites, inclusion formation, macro segregation, and non-dendritic structures (Flemings, 1974). The refinement of the eutectic silicon is primarily due to the rapid rate of cooling. Reduced time for solidification limits the diffusion process so that the growth of the silicon phase, once nucleated, becomes restricted. This leads to increased eutectic silicon concentration, improved mechanical strength, reduced shrinkage and gas voids (Flemings, 1974 and Yan, 2006). There is interdependence between cooling rate, microstructure and porosity in metal alloys. Smaller size and lower volume of porosity are observed at higher cooling rates while oxide films are found at lower cooling rates in magnesium and aluminium alloys

(Zheng, 2006; Liang, 2009 and Zhang, 2005). Several studies have shown an inverse relationship between strength and dendrite arm size in cast iron and cast aluminium alloys. Experimental investigation showed that cooling rate had a significant effect on the tensile behaviour of Sn.3.5Ag solder. An increase in cooling rate resulted in an increase in yield strength and workhardening rate and a decrease in strain-tofailure. With decreasing cooling rate, the microstructural feature size increased and the coarser microstructure in the samples resulted in decreased resistance to dislocation motion ( Ochoa, 2003 and David, 2003). The primary objective of this work is to experimentally determine the effects of cooling conditions on the grain size and mechanical properties of hypoeutectic Al5%Si alloy. The properties of interest include: ultimate tensile strength, elongation, and hardness. The results of tests conducted showed that the specimen with mould wall at 10oC has the highest ultimate tensile strength of 270.53N/mm2 and hardness of 64.6HB. The lowest % elongation was obtained from the specimen with mould wall at 10oC. As indicated by the tensile and hardness tests, cast specimen with mould wall at 100C exhibited higher strength and hardness but lower elongation than cast specimens with mould wall at 250C and 450C. The smallest grains are also observed in the cast specimen with mould wall temperature at 100C. 2.0 2.1 MATERIALS AND METHOD Material

Pieces of scrapped Aluminium-Silicon piston alloy were collected from a mechanic

workshop. The scales were removed and the pistons thoroughly washed in petrol. 2.2 Specimen Preparation

2.4

Hardness Value Determination

The Brinell Hardness test was employed with a load of 125kg applied on the steel ball indenter at right angle to the specimen for a period of 15seconds. Three

About 440g of the scrapped alloy was charged and melted in an electrical

resistance furnace with lining made from a blend of high grade low thermal mass insulation, hard wearing refractory brick. The melt was poured at 7300C into die gravity cast iron moulds with wall temperatures at 100C, 250C and 450C respectively to produce cylindrical rods of 10mm diameter each. Mould 1 was placed in the refrigerator and the thermostat set at 100C for 1 hour before the melt was poured. Moulds 2 and 3 were placed in electrical resistant ovens at 250C and 450C for one hour each before the melt was poured. 2.3 Tensile Properties Determination

indentations were made on the surface and the average indentation diameter measured using a low power portable microscope fitted with a scale and the equivalent Brinell Hardness number read from a table. The error margin was found to be 0.02. The result is shown in Table 2. 2.5 Microstructural Analysis

The specimens for micro examination were filed, ground, polished and etched using a solution of 2.5ml Nitric acid (HNO3), 1.5ml Hydrochloric acid (HCl), and 1.0ml Hydrofluoric acid (HFl) in 95ml water. An inverted type metallurgical microscope with a standard tube length of 200mm and a builtin camera was used to view and record the micro structural changes that took place in all the prepared samples. 3.0 3.1 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Chemical Composition

Three groups of dog-bone shaped bars, (27mm x 5mm x 8mm) were produced as tensile strength evaluations. The specimens were pulled to fracture on a Mansoto tensile testing machine with an automatic load-extension graph plotter. specimens and for ultimate tensile

percentage

elongation

From the data generated, ultimate tensile strength and percentage elongation were calculated. The results are shown in Table 2.

The chemical composition was analysed using an Energy Dispersive X-ray Florescence (EDXRF) Spectrometer. The result shown in Table 1 below revealed a chemical composition of approximately 5%wtSi and 93%wtAl .

Table 1: Chemical Composition of Al-Si alloy Used in wt%

Composition, wt% Materials Si Al-Si Alloy 5.51 Mg 0.46 Mn 0.57 Cu 1.14 Zn 0.48 Ti 0.03 Fe < 0.69 Sn 0.09 Pb 0.04 Al rem

3.2

Mechanical Properties Evaluation

The results obtained from hardness test and the tensile test are presented in Table 2 below: Table 2: Average Values of Mechanical Properties of Al-5Si Alloy at different mould wall temperature Mould wall temperature 100C 250C 450C
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 25 Temperature (0C)
Figure 1: Comparison of mould wall temperature against grain size and hardness
Grainsize Hardness

Hardness (HB)

UTS (N/mm2)

Elongation (%)

64.6 56.8 43.9

270.53 245.37 230.16

1.69 1.90 2.21

45

300 250 200

Grain size

150
UTS

100 50 0 10 25 Temperature (0C) 45

Figure 2: Comparison of mould wall temperature against grain size and UTS

3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 10 25

Temperature (0C)

Elongation Grain size

45

Figure 3: Comparison of mould wall temperature against grain size and elongation

3.2.1 Hardness: The highest hardness value of 64.6HB was obtained from the casting with mould wall temperature at 100C and the lowest value of 43.9HB was obtained from the specimen with mould wall at 450C. The small grains obtained from the specimen with mould wall at 100C ensured less chances for dislocation and therefore greater hardness.

3.2.2 Ultimate Tensile Strength: The casting with mould wall at 100C had the highest Ultimate Tensile Strength of 270.53N/mm2 and the lowest value is obtained from the casting with mould wall at 450C with 230.16N/mm2. These values clearly agree with previous works [1] that increase in solidification rate leads to a corresponding increase in Ultimate Tensile Strength.

3.2.3 Elongation: The highest percentage elongation of 2.16% was obtained from the casting with mould wall temperature at 450C while the lowest value of 1.67% was obtained from the specimen with mould wall at 100C. Increased solidification rate due to steeper temperature gradient leads to finer grains, fewer voids, higher resistance to dislocation and thus reduced ductility.

3.3

Metallography: From visual observation of the micrographs, the casting with a mould wall temperature of 450C is found to have the biggest grain size. The smallest grain size was observed in the casting with 100C mould wall temperature. From the visual observations made, the grain sizes were given arbitrary values of 10, 20, and 30.

PLATE 1: Micrograph of Al-5%Si alloy with mould wall temperature at 100C showing dark precipitates of Silicon in light grey-alpha aluminium solid solution matrix (x400)

PLATE 2: Micrograph of Al-%5Si alloy with mould wall temperature at 250C showing dark precipitates of Silicon in light grey alpha- aluminium solid solution matrix (x400)

PLATE 3: Micrograph of Al-5%Si alloy with mould wall temperature at 450C showing dark precipitates of Silicon in light grey alpha- aluminium solid solution matrix (x400)

5.0 CONCLUSIONS The following conclusions were made based on the study: 1) Al-5%Si alloy when cast with mould wall at 100C will have better grain refinement than when the mould wall is at a higher temperature of 250C or 450C. 2) Al-5%Si alloy possesses higher ultimate tensile strength and hardness when cast at 100C mould wall temperature than when cast at a higher mould wall temperature of 250C or 450C. 3) Al-5%Si alloy possesses higher % elongation value when cast with a higher mould wall temperature value, say 450C than when cast at a lower mould wall temperature, say, 100C. REFERENCES: 1 David, S.A., Babu, S.S. and Vitek, J.M.(2003) Welding: Solidification and Microstructure, Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, Vol. 55, No 6, pp14-20. Flemings, M.C. (1974) Solidification Processing, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions Journal, Vol 5,No10, pp 2121-2134, Springer, Boston. 7 6 5 4

Mg Alloy, AE42, Magnesium Technology, The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, TMS. http://www.hpc.msstate.edu/publicati on/docs/2009/02/262226. Ochoa, F., Williams, J. J. and Chawla, N. (2003) Effects of Cooling Rate on Microstructure and Mechanical Behavior of Sn-3.5Ag Solder , Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, Vol. 55, No 6, pp56-60. Pavloric-Kristic, J., Bahr, R. and Putic, S. (2009) The Effect of Mould Temperature and Cooling Conditions on the Size of Secondary Dendrite Arm Spacing in Al-7Si-3Cu Alloy, MJoM, Vol 15 (2) pp 105-113. Yan, M., Zon, J. and Shen, J. (2006) Cooling Rate Effect on Microstructure and Phase Formation in Zirconium Based Bulk Metallic Glass, Science and Technology of Advanced Materials 7 pp 806-811. www.sciencedirect.com Zhang, Y., Xu, W., Tan, H. and Li, Y. (2005) Acta Mater, 53: 2607. Zheng, L. (2006) Effect of Cooling Rate During Solidification on Microstructure of Cast Ni-Base Superalloy K417G: Journal of Aeronautical Materials Vol 26, No 03.

3 Liang, W., Hong, J.R., Sergio, D.F., Adrian, S.S. and John, T.B. (2009) Interdependence between Cooling Rate, Microstructure and Porosity in