Microindentation Hardness-Secondary Dendritic Spacings Correlation with Casting Thermal Parameters in an Al-9wt.%Si Alloy

Abstract

Experiments were carried out to analyze the effect of growth rates (VL) and cooling rates (TR) on both secondary dendritic arm spacings (λ2) and Vickers microhardness (HV) of an Al-9wt.%Si alloy during the horizontal directional solidification under transient heat flow conditions. A water-cooled solidification experimental apparatus was developed allowing a wide range of TR (from 0.2 to 3.5 oC/s) to be experienced. Five computer guided thermocouples were connected with the metal, and the time-temperature data were recorded automatically. The solidification path was also calculated by Scheil model in Thermo-Calc software. Casting samples were characterized by the combined analyses of optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS) revealing a complex arrangement of phases including binary (α-Al + Si) and ternary (α-Al + Si + β-AlFeSi) mixtures within interdendritic regions. It was observed that power law functions characterize the variation of λ2 as a function of VL and TR with exponents of -2/3 and -1/3, respectively. Finally, experimental laws of power and Hall-Petch types are proposed relating the resulting HV to the λ2. According to these results, it was found that, for increasing values of λ2, the results of HV decrease.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.24.1.17319