Effect of molybdenum addition on aluminium grain refined by titanium on its metallurgical and mechanical characteristics in the as cast condition and after pressing by the equal angular channel process

Abstract

Aluminium and its alloys are versatile materials which are widely used in industrial and engineering applications due to their attractive characteristics. However, they solidify in columnar structure which tends to reduce their surface quality and mechanical strength. It is therefore, grain refined by grain refiners i.e. titanium or titanium+boron. The equal angular channel pressing, ECAP, process is a recent method for producing severe plastic deformation in materials. In this research work, the effect of addition of molybdenum either alone or in the presence of titanium to commercially pure aluminium on microstructure and mechanical behaviour is investigated in two conditions; first, in the as cast condition, and second after pressing by the ECAP process at room temperature. It was found that addition of Ti alone at a rate of 0.15% weight to commercially pure Al resulted in grain refining of microstructure and a grain size of 91μm was obtained. However, after pressing by the ECAP process further refinement was achieved and the grain size was reduced to 18μm. Addition of Mo alone to aluminium at a rate of 0.1% resulted in grain size of 76μm in the as cast condition and 32μm after pressing by the ECAP process. The combination of the two elements Ti and Mo together resulted in 48μm grain size in the as cast condition, compared to 40μm after pressing by the ECAP process. Furthermore, it was found that in the as cast condition: addition of Ti alone to Al resulted in enhancement of its mechanical behaviour by an increase of 5.2% increase in its flow stress at 20% true strain, whereas addition of Mo either alone or in the presence of Ti resulted in decrease of its flow stress at 20% by 9% and 5.6% respectively. However, after pressing by ECAP: it was found that addition of Ti or Mo either alone or together to Al resulted in increase of its flow stress at 20 % strain by the following percentages 5.49, 4.74 and 10.3% respectively.