Application of experimental design to study and control properties and behaviour of cast Al–10 ? 8Si eutectic alloy

Abstract

An attempt was made to investigate the effect of compositional variationson the mechanical properties of an experimental T6 aged Al–10·8Si eutectic alloy. Experimental data were used to evaluate the regression coefficients of polynomial equations. The equations show that increasing Cu, Mn and Mg contents results in an increase in hardness and tensile strength. Copper makes the highest contribution of all three elements to the strength for the composition range studied. All four elements reduce the elongation and toughness, with Cu having the greatest effect. Detailed analysis indicates that the interaction coefficients of these variables do not appear to contribute significantly to the mechanical properties of the alloys. The accuracy of the equations in predicting the properties has been verified by carrying out random experiments in the range of variation of these four variables.