In situ radiographic study of the grain refining behavior of Al3Sc during the solidification of Al-10Cu alloy

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2021.11.078

Abstract

Abstract:

Grain refinement of Al alloys inoculated by rare earth elements, such as Sc, has been extensively acknowledged, while the practical behavior of how inoculant Al₃Sc particles affect the refinement in solidification has not been clarified due to the non-transparency of the solidification process. Here, the microstructural evolution of primary Al₃Sc particles and α-Al grains in Al-10 wt.% Cu alloy solidifications with 0.2 wt.%, 0.6 wt.%, and 1.0 wt.% Sc additions was investigated by in situ synchrotron X-ray radiography. The detailed mechanisms of curve motion of grains (CMG) and melt convection were revealed. The efficient grains nucleation, uniformly scattered small initial grains, and long duration of melt convection contributed to the best refinement in the 0.6 wt.% Sc addition sample. This work provides a deep insight into grain refinement in solidification with Sc addition, which will enlighten the composition design and casting process of Al alloys inoculated by rare earth elements.

Key words: Radiography, Solidification, Melt convection, Curve motion of grains, Grain refining

Yue Wu, Yang Tang, Ya Zhang, Yanan Fu, Hui Xing, Jiao Zhang, Jun Jiang, Baode Sun. In situ radiographic study of the grain refining behavior of Al₃Sc during the solidification of Al-10Cu alloy[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2022, 122: 33-43.

Figures/Tables 10

Fig. 1. The phase diagram of Al-10Cu-xSc (wt.%) calculated by PANDAT.

Fig. 2. Schematic illustration of the synchrotron X-ray experimental setup and the route of melt convection in 0.6Sc and 1.0Sc.

Fig. 3. The ex situ characterizations of the Al3Sc: (a) XRD patterns of the three alloys after in situ solidifications; (b) The morphology of Al3Sc particles; (c) The enlarged view of the area denoted by the black frame in (b); (d-f) The EDS mapping of (c).

Table 1. The elemental compositions of the zones marked in Fig. 3(c).

Zone	Al (at.%)	Sc (at.%)	Cu (at.%)
Z1	74.72	25.01	0.27
Z2	74.65	25.31	0.04
Z3	74.65	25.31	0.04

Fig. 4. Analysis in 0.6Sc×10: (a) Radiograph sequence of the microstructural evolution of Al3Sc particles and α-Al grains. The start frames t0 and t1 correspond to the emergence of the first Al3Sc particle A and α-Al grain A in the FOV, respectively. (b) The settling velocities of Al3Sc particles 1 and 2. (c) Trajectories of grains 3, 4, and 5 during t1 = 5-19 s.

Fig. 5. Analysis of the region labeled with a white frame in Fig. 4: (a) Trajectories of three particles/grains. Three large points in each trajectory correspond to the moments of inserted radiographs. The inserted radiographs provide zoomed-in views of the region labeled with a white frame in Fig. 4. Time-evolved (b) horizontal velocities and (c) vertical velocities of three particles/grains. The “t1 = -t s” means t s before the emergence of grains in FOV.

Fig. 6. Morphologies of Al3Sc particles in (a) 0.6Sc and (b) 1.0Sc. Morphologies of grains in (c) 0.6Sc and (d) 1.0Sc. The inset images provide the zoomed-in views. Size distributions of Al3Sc particles in (e) 0.6Sc×10 and (f) 1.0Sc. Time-evolved (g) sizes and (h) growth velocities of Al3Sc particles in 0.6Sc×10 and 1.0Sc.

Fig. 7. Radiograph sequences of the microstructural evolution of α-Al grains in (a) 0.2Sc, (b) 0.6Sc, and (c) 1.0Sc, respectively. t1 = 0 s is set when the first grain emerged in FOV. The yellow ellipses denote the trails caused by the fast movement of grains. The green dashed curves with arrows denote the CMG.

Fig. 8. The evolution of (a) the grain number and (b) the increase rate as a function of the effective thermal undercooling ΔTe.

Fig. 9. The morphologies of (a) 0.2Sc, (b) 0.6Sc, and (c) 1.0Sc at t1 = 66 s, respectively. The colormap is a pseudo colorized image according to grayscale to enhance grain visibility. The blue patches denote the grains. (d) The final grain numbers in FOV and mean grain sizes of the three experiments.

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In situ radiographic study of the grain refining behavior of Al₃Sc during the solidification of Al-10Cu alloy

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