Relationship between spacing of eutectic colonies and tensile properties of transient directionally solidified Al-Ni eutectic alloy

Abstract

Eutectic Al-Ni alloys are widely faced as materials to be considered for advanced structural components. Nevertheless, still there is a lack of research on microstructural aspects of the eutectic Al-6.3 wt%Ni alloy and important points need to be addressed, such as, the morphology of the unsteady solidified eutectic, size and distribution of phases under different solidification cooling rates and the effects of the resulting microstructural features on mechanical properties. As such, in the present study, an Al-6.3 wt%Ni alloy is directionally solidified under a wide range of cooling rates and the resulting microstructure is shown to be formed by eutectic colonies. Three general microstructural features characterize the colony: a fine central zone composed of fibrous α-Al + Al3Ni eutectic, a boundary coarse zone formed by lamellar eutectic, and an Al-rich zone delimiting the colony. A quantitative analysis relating solidification thermal parameters to Al3Ni and colony spacings is outlined. Furthermore, the evolution of tensile properties as a function of these spacings was examined, and the highest strength and elongation of 160 MPa and 15%, respectively, are associated with an ultrafine bimodal structure formed by eutectic colonies with 55 μm in spacing containing very fine fibers (300 nm in spacing) and lamellae with 750 nm in spacing.