Grain Refinement of Commercial EC Grade 1070 Aluminium Alloy for Electrical Application
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DEGREE PROJECT, IN ENGINEERING MATERIALS SCIENCE , SECOND LEVEL STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2015 Grain Refinement of Commercial EC Grade 1070 Aluminium Alloy for Electrical Application MASSOUD HASSANABADI KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT www.kth.se Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like express the deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Ragnhild Elizabeth Aune for her guidance, encouragement and support during the project. It gives me great pleasure in acknowledging the support and help of my co-supervisors, Professor Lars Arnberg and Dr. Shahid Akhtar. I wish to express my sincere thanks to Norsk Hydro Karmøy for their financial support. I am extremely thankful to my friend, Florian Schmack for his precious assistance and innovative suggestions during the laboratory works. I thank profusely all the staff members of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for their kind help and co-operation throughout my thesis work. I also take this opportunity to express my greatest regards to my dear friends at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for their guidance and support. Massoud Hassanabadi Stockholm, March 2015 I Abstract The aluminium alloys for electrical conductivity applications are generally not grain refined since the addition of grain refiners drops the electrical conductivity by introducing impurities into the melt. Non-grain refined aluminium may lead to bar fracture and cracks during the metalworking process. The present study focuses to find an optimum balance between the grain refiner addition and the electrical conductivity of commercial EC grade 1070 aluminium alloy for electrical application. In order to reach this goal, the electrical conductivity and the macrostructure of commercial EC grade 1070 aluminium (commercial pure aluminium) have been studied under a series of controlled lab scale trails. Specific addition levels of different grain refiners (TiBloy, Al-5Ti-1B, Al-3Ti-0.15C, and Al-3Ti-1B) were added to the metal melt and samples were taken at specific time intervals. The collected samples were sectioned, ground and macro-etched. Thereafter, the macrostructure was analysed by the use of a digital camera and the electrical conductivity was measured at temperature. The obtained result was expressed as a percentage of the International Annealed Copper Standard (IACS %). The macro-structural analysis showed that TiBloy, Al-5Ti-1B, and Al-3Ti-1B, with the maximum addition level of 0.1%, cannot grin refine commercial pure aluminium. However, at higher grain refiner levels the number of columnar grains increased and their size decreased. The Al-3Ti-0.15C master alloy, with the same addition level as the once chosen for the other grain refiners (up to 0.1%), showed significantly better grain refining. By the addition of 0.1% of this grain refiner the macrostructure became very equiaxed already after 30 minutes of grain refiner addition. The fading of the Al-3Ti-0.15 master alloy was, however, observed for samples with a long holding time. Nevertheless, by maximum addition level (0.1%) and a 90 minutes holding time the macrostructure remained as equiaxed grains. The electrical conductivity results showed that none of the applied grain refiners (TiBloy, Al- 5Ti-1B, Al-3Ti-0.15C, and Al-3Ti-1B), with the maximum addition level of 0.1%, decreased the electrical conductivity of commercial pure aluminium. Key words: grain refining, fading, columnar grains, equiaxed grains, properzi, electrical conductivity, IACS % II Table of Contents 1-Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 2- Literature review and background .................................................................................. 5 2.1- Aluminium characteristics and applications ............................................................... 5 2.2- Aluminium alloys ........................................................................................................ 6 2.3 Designation systems ..................................................................................................... 6 2.3.1- Aluminium association international alloy designation (H35.1) ............................. 7 1. Wrought aluminium and aluminium alloy designation system ................................... 7 2. Cast aluminium and aluminium alloy designation system .......................................... 7 2.3.1.1- Wrought aluminium and aluminium alloy designation ......................................... 7 2.3.1.2- Cast aluminium and aluminium alloys designation system .................................. 7 2.4- Aluminium Production ................................................................................................ 8 2.4.1- The primary aluminium ............................................................................................ 8 2.4.1.1- Alumina refinery (Bayer Process) ......................................................................... 8 2.4.1.2- Aluminium reduction (Hall-Heroult process) ....................................................... 9 2.4.2-The secondary aluminium ....................................................................................... 10 2.5- Continuous Properzi Process ..................................................................................... 10 2.6- Grain-Boundary strengthening .................................................................................. 11 2.7- Grain refining ............................................................................................................ 11 2.8- Types of grain refiners .............................................................................................. 13 2.9-Mechanisms of grain refinement ................................................................................ 14 2.9.1- Carbide/Boride theory ............................................................................................ 14 2.9.2- Phase diagram/Peritectic theory ............................................................................. 15 2.9.3- Duplex nucleation theory ....................................................................................... 15 2.9.4- Solute theory .......................................................................................................... 16 2.9.5- Peritectic hulk theory ............................................................................................. 16 2.10- Comparison of the performance of the master alloys on grain refining of pure aluminium ......................................................................................................................... 17 2.11- Electrical conductivity............................................................................................. 23 2.12- Fading ...................................................................................................................... 23 3- Experimental method ................................................................................................... 25 III 4- Results and Discussion ................................................................................................. 31 4.1- Characterization of the master alloys by SEM and EDS .......................................... 31 4.2- Thermal and structural analysis of the samples ........................................................ 35 4.2.1- Results from the first approach .............................................................................. 35 4.2.2- Results from the second (main) method ................................................................. 37 4.3- Electrical conductivity measurements ....................................................................... 42 5- Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 46 Further work ..................................................................................................................... 47 References ........................................................................................................................ 48 IV 1-Introduction Copper high-voltage transmission lines have given their place to aluminium for two reasons. First, Aluminium is cheaper (per ton), so it is more economical on those multi-mile distances. Second, aluminium is lighter and lets those expensive pylons be placed father apart. In addition, decent mechanical strength and persistent corrosion resistance are other properties that have made the aluminium a feasible choice for electrical conductivity application [1]. G. G. Gauthier [2] investigated the effect of different elements on the electrical conductivity of super-purity aluminium and categorized the elements into 3 groups. 1. Gold, gallium, nickel, silicon, iron, and zinc all of which have little effect. Figure 1.1 shows the effect of Si, Fe and Si + Fe on the electrical conductivity of aluminium. Figure 1.1- Effect of Si, Fe and Si + Fe on the conductivity of Al [2] 1 2. Copper, silver, and magnesium which have rather more effect. The effect of Si and Mg on the electrical conductivity of aluminium is shown in figure 1.2. It can be seen in Figure 1.2 that manganese, at the addition levels of about higher than 0.05%, reduces the electrical conductivity of aluminium more than Si. Figure 1.2- Effect of Si and Mg on the electrical conductivity