Novel image analysis to determine the si modification for hypoeutectic and hypereutectic Al-Si alloys

Abstract

The aim of this research is to develop a novel analytical approach to determine the level of modification of silicon in Al-Si hypoeutectic and hypereutectic alloys. Two standards to determine the level of modification of silicon particles were investigated: the AFS Si Modification Standard and the Primary Si Grade.1,2 The first method can only be used for Al-Si hypoeutectic alloys and the second one for Al-Si hypereutectic alloys. In both methods, the determination of the level of modification of silicon is carried out by comparing micrographs of the test sample with the respective standards by simple observation. This results in a method with a bias error and does not take advantage of the analytical accuracy made possible by modern image analysis techniques. This paper presents a method known as image-analysis-based silicon modification level, which provides highly reliable results to determine the level of silicon modification for Al-Si hypoeutectic and hypereutectic alloys.