Solid State Phenomena
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Interpenetrating Phase Composites (IPC) belong to a special category of composite materials, offering great potential in terms of material properties due to the continuous volume structure of both composite components. While manufacturing of metal-ceramic IPC via existing casting and infiltration processes leads to structural deficits, semi-solid forming represents a promising technology for producing IPC components without such defects. Thereby, a solid open pore body made of ceramic is infiltrated with a metallic material in the semi-solid state. Good structural characteristics of the microstructure as the integrity of the open-pore bodies after infiltration and an almost none residual porosity within the composites have already been proven for this manufacturing route within a certain process window. On this basis, the following paper focuses on the mechanical properties such as bending strength of metal-ceramic IPC produced by using semi-solid forming technology. Thereby, the impact of the significant process parameters on these properties is analysed within a suitable process window. Furthermore, a fractographic analysis is carried out by observing and interpreting the fracture behaviour during these tests and the fracture surface thereafter.

Microstructures and mechanical properties of directionally solidified Mg-xGd (5.21, 7.96 and 9.58 wt.%) alloys were investigated at a wide range of growth rates (V = 10-200 μm/s) under the constant temperature gradient (G = 30 K/mm). The results showed that when the growth rate was 10 μm/s, different interface morphologies were observed in three tested alloys: cellular morphology for Mg-5.21Gd alloy, a mixed morphology of cellular structure and dendritic structure for Mg-7.96Gd alloy and dendrite morphology for Mg-9.58Gd alloy, respectively. Upon further increasing the growth rate, only dendrite morphology was exhibited in all experimental alloys. The microstructural parameters (λ1, λ2) decreased with increasing the growth rate for all the experimental alloy, and the measured λ1 and λ2 values were in good agreement with Trivedi model and Kattamis-Flemings model, respectively. Vickers hardness and the ultimate tensile strength increased with the increase of the growth rate and Gd content, while the elongation decreased gradually. Furthermore, the relationships between the hardness, ultimate tensile strength, the growth rate and the microstructural parameters were discussed and compared with the previous experimental results.

Nowadays, one of the most crucial focus in the aluminium-foundry sector is the production of high-quality castings. Mainly, High-Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) is broadly adopted, since by this process is possible to realize aluminium castings with thin walls and high specific mechanical properties. On the other hand, this casting process may cause tensile states into the castings, namely residual stresses. Residual stresses may strongly affect the life of the product causing premature failure of the casting. Various methods can assess these tensile states, but the non-destructive X-Ray method is the most commonly adopted. Namely, in this work, the residual stress analysis has been performed through Sinto-Pulstec μ-X360s. Detailed measurements have been done on powertrain components realized in aluminium alloy EN AC 46000 through HPDC processes to understand and prevent dangerous residual stress state into the aluminium castings. Furthermore, a comparison with stresses induced by Rheocasting processes is underway. In fact, it is well known that Semi-Solid metal forming combines the advantages of casting and forging, solving safety and environmental problems and possibly even the residual stress state can be positively affected.

Different Ta concentrations together with stochiometric grain refiner (Al-2.2Ti-1B) in Al-Si-Mg based alloys were investigated with the aim to elucidate grain refinement mechanisms. Post-solidification microstructure was characterised using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), with a special focus on the Ta-rich layer (more likely to be Al3Ta) on the basal planes (0001) of TiB2. A significant grain refinement was observed by using the solute Ta together with stochiometric grain refiner (Al-2.2Ti-1B). In order to further elucidate the formation of Ta-rich layer on the basal planes (0001) of TiB2, the Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation were also performed to determine the interface energies of different interfaces and sandwich configurations, including Al (111), Al3Ti (112) and Al3Ta (112) at the interface of TiB2 basal plane (0001). It was found that the interface energy for Ti-terminated TiB2 at the interface throughout all configurations involved in this paper is lower than that for B-terminated TiB2, indicating that Ti-terminated TiB2 is more favourable. It was also found that the Al3Ta configuration yields the same interface energies as the Al3Ti configuration. Furthermore, the interface energy of the sandwich configuration also shows nearly identical values along the TiB2 // Al3Ti and TiB2 // Al3Ta interface energy, strongly indicating that the solute Ti can be fully replaced by the solute Ta.

The semi-solid extruded CuSn10P1 alloy bushings were homogenization annealed. The effects of annealing process on the hardness and wear properties of bushings were researched. The results show the Brinell hardness increases firstly and then decreases with the increase of annealing temperature and annealing time. With the annealing temperature increasing, the grinding loss rate and friction factor decrease firstly and then increase. At the annealing time of 120 min, the grinding loss rate decreases from 7% at the annealing temperature of 450 °C to 6% at 500 °C, and then increases from 6% at 500 °C to 12% at 600 °C. The friction factor decreases from 0.54 to 0.48 and then increases to 0.83. At the annealing temperature of 500 °C, the grinding loss rate decreases from 11% at the annealing time of 60 min to 6% at 120 min, and then increases to 15% at 150 min. The friction factor decreases from 0.67 to 0.48 and then increases to 0.72. The best wear performance and Brinell hardness can be obtained at annealing temperature of 500 °C for 120 min.

Semi-solid processing combines the advantages of traditional forging and casting methods, so it has received much attention recently. However, the research on semi-solid behaviors of Nickel-based superalloys has been rarely reported. In order to investigate the behaviors of Nickel-based superalloy at solid and semi-solid states, oxidation experiments, isothermal treatment experiments and deformation experiments of GH4037 alloy were studied. Short-term oxidation experiments of GH4037 alloy were carried out at a solid temperature (1200 °C) and a semi-solid temperature (1360 °C). The results indicated that the oxides formed at 1200 °C were mainly composed of TiO2, Cr2O3 and a small amount of spinels NiCr2O4, while the oxides formed at 1360 °C consisted of the spinels of NiCr2O4, NiWO4 and NiMoO4 besides TiO2 and Cr2O3. Microstructure evolution of GH4037 alloy after semi-solid isothermal treatment at 1370 °C and 1380 °C was studied. The results indicated that semi-solid microstructures consisted of equiaxed solid grains and liquid phases. The average grains size and shape factor of solid grains were affected by melting mechanism and grain growth mechanism. Compression behaviors of GH4037 alloy after compressed at 1200 °C and 1360 °C were investigated. The results indicated that the flow stress of 1360 °C decreased significantly compared to that of 1200 °C. The deformation zones in the specimens were divided into three parts: the difficult deformation zone, the large deformation zone, and the free deformation zone. At 1200 °C, the deformation mechanism was plastic deformation mechanism. At 1360 °C, sliding between solid particles (SS), liquid flow (LF), flow of liquid incorporating solid particles (FLS), plastic deformation of solid particles (PDS) coexisted in the compression specimen.

There is a strong demand for high-strength aluminum alloys such as 7075 aluminum alloy to be applied for rheocasting industry. The overriding challenge for the application of 7075 alloy is that its solid fraction is very sensitive to the variation of temperature in the range of 40% ~ 50% solid fraction, which inevitably narrows down the processing window of slurry preparation for rheocasting process. Therefore, in this work, a novel method to prepare semi-solid slurry of the 7075 alloy, so called Enthalpy Control Process (ECP), has been developed to grapple with this issue. In the method, a medium-frequency electromagnetic field was applied on the outside of slurry preparation crucible to reduce the temperature difference throughout the slurry. The effect of processing parameters, including heating power, heating time, the initial temperature of crucible and melt weight, on the temperature field of the semi-solid slurry was investigated. The results exhibited that although the all the processing parameters had a great influence on the average temperature of the slurry, heating time was the main factor affecting the maximum temperature difference of the slurry. The optimum processing parameters during ECP were found to be heating power of 7.5 KW, the initial temperature of crucible of 30 °C ~ 200 °C and melt weight of 2 kg.

AZ80 alloy has been widely used to produce high performance Mg casting and wrought parts for high-end applications due to its high mechanical properties and deformation ability. However, at least two important issues still need to be solved in order to further improve its mechanical properties and deformation ability. Firstly, the grain size of α-Mg in AZ80 alloy is relatively large (more than 1000 µm) due to a lack of efficient grain refinement methodologies. Secondly, the size of the eutectic Mg17Al12 phase is also large and the distribution of the eutectic Mg17Al12 phase is continuous, which is very harmful for the mechanical properties, in particular to elongation. In this paper, these two important issues are investigated by adding Mg3N2 sub-micron particle into AZ80 alloy and thereby refining the α-Mg and the eutectic Mg17Al12 phase. Firstly, the Mg3N2 sub-micron particle was directly added into AZ80 alloy by using mechanically stirring in the semi-solid state, subsequently the melting temperature was increased above the liquidous temperature, and finally the melting was casted in the liquid state. It was found that the grain size of α-Mg can be refined from 883.8 µm to 169.9 µm. More importantly, the eutectic Mg17Al12 phase was also refined and the distribution became discontinuous. It should be noted that directly adding the Mg3N2 sub-micron particle into AZ80 alloy leads to a great loss of the Mg3N2 sub-micron particle due to the weak wetting behavior between the Mg3N2 sub-micron particle and Mg melt. The second methodology through mixing Mg3N2 sub-micron particles with AZ91 chips using a twin extruder was also used to prepare AZ91 master alloy with 3wt.% Mg3N2 sub-micron particle, which was subsequently added into AZ80 alloy in the liquid state. In this way, a significant grain refinement of α-Mg and a simultaneous refinement of the eutectic Mg17Al12 phase in AZ80 alloy was also achieved. The grain size of α-Mg can be refined from 883.8 µm to 325.9 µm. However, no significant grain refinement by using UST was observed. Instead, the grain size increases from 325.9 µm to 448.6 µm, indicating that the Mg3N2 sub-micron particle may lose its grain refinement potency due to possible aggregation and clustering. This paper provides an efficient and simple methodology for the grain refinement of α-Mg and the simultaneous refinement of the eutectic Mg17Al12 phase in AZ80 alloy.

There is little datum related to microstructure and properties of Mg alloys squeeze-casted with pressure over 200 MPa. In this study, the microstructure and properties of Mg-6Zn-1.4Y (ZW61) alloy solidified under 100MPa to 800MPa were investigated. The results show that a remarkable microstructure refinement and porosity reduction can be reached through solidification under high pressure. The average grain size and the volume fraction of second phase, i.e. quasicrystal I-phase, decrease continuously with the increase of applied pressure. The tensile properties, especially elongation, are obvious enhanced because of the microstructure refinement and castings densification under high pressure. The ultimate tensile strength and elongation of ZW61 alloy in as-cast state are 243 MPa and 18.7% when the applied pressure is 800 MPa, which are increased by 35% and 118% respectively, compared with that of the gravity castings.

Spherical morphology is the typical characteristic of the microstructure in semi-solid slurries, while the formation mechanism of these spherical grains is still unclear, especially the migration of the solid-liquid interface under different process conditions. This study will focus on the effect of pouring temperature and swirling on the morphology of grains. A phase field-lattice-Boltzmann method using parallel computing and adaptive mesh refinement (Para-AMR) was employed to study the FCC α-Al phase evolution in binary Al-Si aluminum alloy. Study results represent that the pouring temperature has a significant influence on the morphology of the α-Al grains. Low pouring temperature is a benefit for the formation of spherical microstructures. And the swirling can refine the microstructure under high pouring temperature.