RESUMO
The requirements of high-strength, wear-resistance and lightweight of brake drums have been continually increasing in recent years and any specific aluminum alloy or particle-reinforced aluminum matrix composites may not satisfy all the demands. Combining dissimilar materials to play their respective advantages is a solution to this problem. In this study, a compound casting method was used to combine solid SiCp/A357 composite and a liquid 7050 aluminum alloy to prepare an aluminum matrix composite with a layered structure. The ProCAST numerical simulation software was used to predict the heat transfer in compound casting process and guide the preheating temperature of the wear-resistant ring in the experiment. An Optical Microscope (OM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) were used to observe microstructures around the solid-liquid bonding interface, the element distribution and phase component of which were analyzed by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and mechanical properties were evaluated by microhardness and shear tests. The results showed that the interface of the layered aluminum matrix composite prepared by this method achieved complete metallurgical bonding and a transition zone formed on the solid surface. After T6 heat treatment, the average shear strength of the interface increased from 19.8 MPa to 33.8 MPa.
RESUMO
High-strength aluminum alloy (mainly refers to the 7xxx series) is the optimum material for lightweight military equipment. However, this type of aluminum alloy is a wrought aluminum alloy. If it is directly formed by traditional casting methods, there will inevitably be problems such as coarseness, unevenness, looseness, and hot cracking in the structure, which will greatly affect the final performance of the part. Based on the internal cooling with annular electromagnetic stirring (IC-AEMS) method, a new technology of rheological die forging is developed in this paper, and the scale-reduced parts of a brake hub of Al-6.54Zn-2.40Cu-2.35Mg-0.10Zr aluminum alloy were prepared. The influence of IC-AEMS and the addition of rare element Sc on the structure and mechanical properties of the parts was studied. An optical microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to observe the microstructure evolution, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) was used to analyze the phase distribution and composition, and the mechanical properties of the parts were tested by uniaxial tensile tests. The results show that the addition of Sc element can effectively refine the grains and improve the strength and elongation of the material; the application of IC-AEMS improves the cooling rate of the melt, increases the effective nucleation rate, and the grains are further refined. Through process optimization, scale-reduced parts of a brake hub with good formability and mechanical properties can be obtained, the ultimate tensile strength is 597.2 ± 3.1 MPa, the yield strength is 517.8 ± 4.3 MPa, and the elongation is 13.7 ± 1.3%.
RESUMO
The nucleation and grain growth that occur during solidification have been extensively examined, but insight into the influence of an external field on the formation of heterogeneous crystal nuclei above the liquidus remains unclear in the peritectic refinement mechanism. In this work, we studied the effect of cooling rate above the liquidus on the formation of primary Al3Zr and grain refinement in Al-0.2%Zr alloys with inter-cooling annular electromagnetic stirring (IC-AEMS). The results show that the size and distribution of primary Al3Zr are greatly improved, and the morphology transformed from large plate/blocky shapes without IC-AEMS to small blocks with IC-AEMS. Meanwhile, above the liquidus, the addition of an Al-Zr master alloy to pure Al alone did little to enhance the refinement, but after IC-AEMS, the grains were refined dramatically. The refinement result seems to be explained by two hypotheses of pre-nucleation and explosive nucleation.
