Characterization of Mushy Zone of ZWx2 (x=2, 4, 6) Magnesium Alloys

Abstract

The potentials of Mg-Al system alloys for semi-solid forming have been extensively evaluated these years. In the present studies, mushy zone properties of the Mg-Zn system alloys, i.e. ZWx2 (x=2, 4, 6), are characterized and analyzed by using cooling curve thermal analysis method and continuous torque measurement technique. The results show that Tn1 (first characteristic temperature of primary crystal nucleation), Tn2 (second characteristic temperature of primary crystal nucleation) and Tch (temperature of dendritic coherency) decrease with the increasing of zinc content, and the temperature difference of (Tn1-Tn2) almost remains constant, while the temperature difference of (Tn2-Tch) changes dramatically when Zn content increases to 6wt.%; The results also show that the fs-cc (solid fraction of dendritic coherency) of ZWx2 alloys ranges from 0.4 to 0.51 while ZW22 and ZW62 alloys having higher fs-ch and ZW42 alloy having the lowest fs-ch; also, strength of alloys in mushy zone does not develop until a certain fraction solid( corresponding to the dendrite coherency point) is reached. The results obtained by cooling curve thermal analysis method and continuous torque measurement techniques are comparable to each other.