Effects of Nb microaddition on the dendritic growth of a Al-4.0Cu-0.6Mg-0.7Mn-0.5Si alloy

• Grant number: 20/02697-2
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2020
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Physical Metallurgy
• Principal researcher: José Eduardo Spinelli
• Grantee: Argos Soares Silva
• Home Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Brazil's niobium (Nb) reserves are the largest in the world as well as Brazil may be considered one of the largest producers of aluminum (Al). These facts, associated with the lack of investigations devoted to the effects of Nb in Al alloys, bring a suitable scenario for developing research in such topics. Nb has been recently developed to be used as a grain refiner in conjunction with boron (B) into Al-Si alloys. However, its effects in the dendritic length-scale parameters have not been determined so far. 2000 series Al alloys as for example 2017 alloy (Al-4Cu-0.6Mg-0.7Mn-0.5Si) are essential materials to be applied in construction, transportation and aircraft industries. Furthermore, such alloys are considered promising materials to be used in additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies. However, aspects such as dendritic growth dependence on the solidification thermal parameters and nature/distribution/size of secondary phases within the interdendritic phases still deserve deeper investigation for the 2017 alloy. The mentioned characteristics tend to vary with cooling rate as well as modifications using Nb. As such, the present study will be focused on investigating experimental correlations between dendritic spacings and solidification thermal parameters of the directionally solidified 2017 and 2017(-Nb) alloys. Hardness profiles will be determined for both alloys of interest. Morphologies and distributions of phases such as Al2Cu e Al2CuMg, AlMnSi, among others will be determined. (AU)