Abstract
Due to essential need of Al-Cu alloys in different applications such as aerospace and automotive industries, and the mechanical characteristics of Al-Cu alloys being weak; the effect of vanadium addition at a rate of 0.1% on the mechanical behavior, microhardness, and microstructure have been investigated. The effect of upsetting process -cold work- on the microstructure, microhardness has been also investigated. Three set of alloys namely; Al, Al-9%Cu, and Al-9%Cu-0.1%V were prepared. The specimens for microstructure, microhardness and compression tests were machined. The mechanical tests were performed to investigate the effect of vanadium addition and the effect of upsetting process. It was found that the 0.1% vanadium addition resulted in grain refinement of Al-9% Cu alloys of about 32.3 %, furthermore, and extra refining resulted after upsetting process by 44.2 %. On the other hand, the microhardness of Al-9%Cu enhanced by 54.1 %, and the valuable result was a 422.8 % enhancement in the microhardness of Al-9%Cu-0.1%V alloy after upsetting process compared to pure Al.
Highlights
The Al alloys in the as cast condition are shown in Table.2. 2.3.3 Microstructure test A specimen from each of Al, Al-9%Cu, and Al-9%Cu-0.1%V alloys was mounted grinded using emery paper of 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and 1200 grades, followed by diamond baste, and etched using (5% HNO3, 3% HCL, 4% HF, and 88% H2O) solution in order to get a clear microstructure for each casted alloy. 2.3.4 Microhardness test Microhardness test was carried out using HWDM-3 microhardness tester at 200 gm force on Al, Al-9%Cu, and Al-9%Cu-0.1%V casted alloys
3.1 Effect of vanadium addition at a rate of 0.1% on the microstructure of Al-9%Cu casted alloys It can be shown from Fig.3 (a) that aluminum has a course columnar structure which indicates that the mechanical properties are weak
A new addition of 0.1% vanadium to Al-9%Cu alloy showed a prominent reduction in the average grain size, and this reduction is accounted to the formulation of Al21V2 intermetallic compound as shown in Fig.3 (c)
Summary
Effect of Vanadium Addition at a Rate of 0.1% on the Mechanical Characteristics, Microstructure, and Microhardness of Al-Cu Casted. Mahasneh Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science, Tafila Technical University. A. Al-Qawabah Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tafila Technical University
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