Prediction of mechanical properties of Al alloys with change of cooling rate

Abstract

The solidification process significantly affects the mechanical properties and there are lots of factors that affect the solidification process. Much progress has been made in the research on the effect of solidification on mechanical properties. Among them, the PF (Phase Field) model and CA (Cellular Automata) model are widely used as simulation methods which can predict nucleation and its growth, and the size and morphology of the grains during solidification. Although they can give accurate calculation results, it needs too much computational memory and calculation time. So it is difficult to apply the simulation to the real production process. In this study, a more practical simulation approach which can predict the mechanical properties of real aluminum alloys is proposed, by identifying through experiment the relationship between cooling rate and SDAS (Secondary Dendrite Arm Spacing) and mechanical properties. The experimentally measured values and the values predicted by simulation have relatively small differences and the mechanical properties of a variety of Al alloys are expected to be predicted before casting through use of the simulation.

Keywords

• mechanical properties
• dendrite structure
• aluminum alloy
• cooling rate
• solidification
• casting simulation