Characterização solidification microstructures of Al-Fe alloys and correlation with medchanical properties

Author(s)

Pedro Roberto Goulart

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica
• Defense date: 2010-10-08

Examining board members

Amauri Garcia; Cecília Amélia de Carvalho Zavaglia; Jaime Alvares Spim Junior; Manoel Diniz Peres; Maria Clara Filippini Ierardi

• Advisor: Amauri Garcia

Abstract

Investigations have been made of the solidification structure of three hypoeutectic Al-Fe alloys, which were directionally solidified under unsteady-state heat flow conditions. During the non-equilibrium solidification of castings a range of cooling rates occur from the surface to the casting center, and can cause the formation of metastable intermetallic phases in addition to the stable Al3Fe phase. A combined theoretical/experimental approach was used in order to quantitatively determine the solidification parameters: tip growth rate and cooling rate along the castings length. The experimental thermal results also include transient metal/mold heat transfer coefficients, hg, determined from comparisons between the experimental thermal profiles in castings and the simulations provided by a finite difference heat flow program. A cellular microstructure has prevailed along all the Al-Fe alloys castings. The experimental cell spacing (?1), which was measured along the casting length, was compared with the theoretical predictions furnished by cellular growth models. In order to investigate the nature of the Al-Fe intermetallics, these phases were extracted from the aluminum-rich matrix by using a dissolution technique. Such phases were then investigated by SEM and X-ray techniques. The tensile tests results were correlated with the cell spacing. It was found that the ultimate tensile strength, the yield strength and the maximum elongation increase with decreasing cell spacing. The higher values for ultimate tensile strength were those obtained for the most refined Al-1.5wt%Fe alloy samples, where a higher density of fibers is found distributed in a more homogeneous way due to lower cell spacing value. In contrast, the maximum elongation was found to decrease when the solute content was increased (AU)