Optimization of Mechanical Properties in A356 Via Simulation And
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OPTIMIZATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES IN A356 VIA SIMULATION AND PERMANENT MOLD TEST-BARS By CHIA-JUNG CHEN Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Adviser: Professor David Schwam Department of Materials Science and Engineering CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY January, 2014 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Chia-Jung Chen Doctor of Philosophy candidate for the degree *. John Lewandowski David Schwam Gerhard Welsch Malcolm Cooke 11/15/2013 (date) *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. TABLE OF CONTENTS Content Page TABLE OF CONTENTS [1] LIST OF TABLES [5] LIST OF FIGURES [6] ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS [12] ABSTRACT [13] 1. Chapter 1: Aluminum Cast Alloys 1 1.1. Introduction 1 1.1.1 3xx Alloy 2 1.2. Intrinsic effects on mechanical properties of 3xx alloys (element effects) 3 1.2.1. Grain Refining of 3xx alloys 3 1.2.2. Factors Effect on Grain Size 4 1.2.3. Microstructural Modification 6 1.2.3.1. Modification of A356 alloy 7 1.2.3.2. Modification of 319 alloy 8 [1] Content Page 1.2.4. Heat Treatment of A356 Alloy 9 1.3. Extrinsic effects on mechanical properties of 3xx alloy (porosity and 14 inclusion effects) 1.3.1. Effect of Porosity on Mechanical Properties of A356 14 1.3.1.1. Hydrogen in Molten Aluminum Alloys (gas porosity) 17 1.3.1.2. Shrinkage Porosity 20 1.3.1.3. Element effects on shrinkage porosity 20 1.3.1.4.The Removal of gas porosity 21 1.3.2. Effect of Inclusions on Mechanical Properties 22 1.3.2.1. Measurement of inclusion content 22 1.3.2.2. Methods of Inclusion Removal from Molten Aluminum 25 1.4 Quality Index for Aluminum Alloy Castings 28 2. Literature Review of Effects on Mechanical Properties of A356 and 319 28 Alloys 2.1. Effect of Microstructural Modification and Heat Treatment on 32 Mechanical properties 2.2. Effect of SDAS (Grain Size) on Mechanical Properties 34 2.3 Effect of Porosity on Mechanical Properties 36 2.4. Inclusion Effect on Mechanical Properties 38 3. Experimental Procedure 40 [2] Content Page 3.1. Melt Preparation 40 3.2. Mold Preparation 42 3.3. Filter Preparation 48 3.4. Reduced Pressure Test 49 3.5. PoDFA 50 3.6. Experimental Cooling Rate 50 3.7. Tensile Test 54 3.8. Fatigue Test 55 3.9. Magma Simulation 57 4. Results and Discussions 59 4.0. Hypotheses and Objectives 59 4.1. Characterization of Defects 59 4.1.1. Reduced Pressure Test 59 4.2. Improvement in Mechanical Properties of A356 Alloy 61 4.2.1. Gating System Effect on Mechanical Properties 62 4.2.1.1. Sprue Size Effect 62 4.2.1.2. Effect of the Knfie Ingate 72 4.2.2. The Effect of Coating the Gage Section 79 [3] Content Page 4.2.3. Filtration Effect 82 4.2.4. Best Mechanical Properties of A356 Alloy from Each Mold 83 4.2.5. Quality Index 88 4.3. Improvement in Mechanical Properties of 319 Alloy 91 4.3.1. Effect of Mg and Mn addition in 319Alloy 91 4.3.2. Effect of the Knife Ingate 92 4.3.3. Filtration Effect 95 4.4. Improving Fatigue Properties with HIP 97 5. Conclusions 100 6. References 103 [4] LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1.1. Series of Cast and Wrought Aluminum Alloys 1 1.2. Composition of A356 and 319 Alloys 2 1.3. Heat Treating Temper Code 11 1.4. Typical Inclusions in Aluminum Cast Alloys 16 1.5. Summary of trends in porosity distribution and level 21 2.1. Gas Levels, Solidification Rates and Tensile Properties of CA-B135-T6 38 Sand Cast Step Castings Table Page 2.2. Inclusion/oxide - Mechanical Properties Relationships for A356.2 Alloy 39 4.1. Reduced pressure test relationship to Alspek reading of A356 alloy 60 4.2. Compositions of A356 Alloy in This Study 61 4.3. Compositions of 319 Alloy in This Study 91 [5] LIST OF FIGURES Figures Page 1.1. Phase diagram of aluminum and silicon alloy 3 1.2. Hall-Petch relationship diagram 4 1.3. Grain refiner effect on undercooling 5 1.4. Ti content effect on average grain size 5 1.5. Polarized light micrographs showing the effect of B addition on the A356 grain structure 6 1.6. Typical microstructure of as-cast A356 alloy 7 1.7. Eutectic Si structure observed in 319 alloy 8 1.8. SEM microstructures observed in the 319 type aluminum alloys 9 after T6 heat treatment 1.9. Artificial aging of aluminum alloys 12 1.10. SEM micrograph of A356 alloy solutionized in conventional furnace for 6 hours at 1000oF and aged at 340oF 13 1.11. BFTEM image and [001] SAD pattern from the 319 alloy 13 1.12. Typical shrinkage pore surrounded by dendrites and eutectic phase 15 1.13. Typical gas pore 15 1.14. Effect of temperature on solubility of hydrogen in pure aluminum 17 1.15. A schematic figure of reduced pressure test apparatus 19 1.16. Cross section of RPT samples 21 1.17. Schemetic picture of degassing device 22 [6] Figures Page 1.18. PoDFA (Porous disc filtration apparatus) 23 1.19. Typical micrograph of a sectioned PoDFA sample 24 1.20. Higher magnification on cake section 24 1.21. Effect of time and temperature on oxidation of aluminum 26 1.22. Schematic figure of a fluxing system 26 1.23. Modes of inclusions capture 27 1.24. Yield strength-elongation relationship of A356/A357 alloys 29 1.25. Schematic illustration of the quality index, QT, as the ratio of the experimentally observed elongation as a fraction of the maximum possible 30 elongation QT = eF/eF(max) at the given level of yield strength, σY. 1.26. The nomogram with iso- QT lines for A356/A357 alloy castings shows four distinct regions 31 2.1. UTS and elongation as a function of solution time 33 2.2. Ultimate tensile strength and % elongation of Mg-free and Mg-containing 34 samples 2.3. The average UTS and elongation of cast A356-T6 aluminum alloy curves 35 2.4. S/N curves of E319 with low SDAS and 70μm SDAS 36 2.5. Ultimate tensile and yield strengths versus gas content and per cent voids for 37 remelted A356 alloy 3.1. Electric resistance furnace 40 3.2. Recycled A356 aluminum 41 3.3. Degassing treatment 41 [7] Figures Page 3.4. Fluxing and skimming 42 3.5. ALSPEK hydrogen system 42 3.6. Electrical heater 43 3.7. Oxy-hydrogen flam 43 3.8. Standard Sthal mold 44 3.9. Stahl mold with large round shape sprue (Stahl HS Mold) 44 3.10. Case mold version.1 45 3.11. Case mold version.2 46 3.12. Case mold version.3 46 3.13. Schematic of the cast bars from Case mold version.3 and version.4 47 3.14. Grinding of the knife ingate 47 3.15. In-mold filters 48 3.16. Top view of the in-crucible filter box (black) immersed in Al 48 3.17. RPT test equipment 49 3.18. PoDFA equipments 50 3.19. (a) Dimensions of the step casting and (b) Illustration of the set-up for 51 cooling rate measurement 3.20. Respective cooling rates 52 3.21. Typical cooling rates for various casting processes 53 3.22. Sthal and Case mold version.1 and step mold test bars 54 [8] Figure Page 4.1. PoDFA results for five different conditions 61 4.2. The fracture surface of Case mold v1 test bar 63 4.3. The fracture surface of a Stahl mold test bar 64 4.4. Reduction in melt front velocity of Case Mold v.2 65 4.5. Standard Stahl mold and Stahl HS mold 66 4.6. Filling time in Stahl mold and Stahl HS mold 67 4.7. Melt front velocity of Stahl mold and Stahl HS mold 68 4.8. The effect of sprue size on mechanical properties of A356 alloy on Stahl 69 mold 4.9. Sprue size of Case mold v.2 and v.3 70 4.10. Effect of sprue size on mechanical properties of A356 alloy on Case mold 71 4.11. Macrograph of Stahl mold and Stahl HS mold 72 4.12. Case mold v.3 and v.4 73 4.13. Solidification time of Case mold v.3 and v.4 74 4.14. Micro porosity of Case mold v.3 and v.4 74 4.15. SDAS of Case mold v.3 and v.4 75 4.16. The effect of the knife gate on mechanical properties of A356 alloy 76 4.17. Fracture surface of Stahl mold and Case mold v.4 77 4.18. Shrinkage porosity in Stahl mold test bars 78 4.19. Perfectly broken of Case mold V4 test bars 78 4.20. Test bar after removal of the knife ingate 79 [9] Figure Page 4.22. The micro-porosity at gage section of Case mold V4 with two kinds of 81 coating 4.23. Applying a coating on the gage section effects on the fracture surfaces of 82 tensile test bars of A356 alloy in different molds 4.24. In-mold filter effect on mechanical properties of A356 alloy 83 4.25. Schematic of the step mold and step casting 84 4.26. Micro-porosity prediction in three different molds 85 4.27.