Thermodynamic calculations of the effective solidification range and its relation to hot cracking of aluminum-based ternary alloys

The correlation between experimental hot cracking (HC) and the calculated effective solidification range (ESR) (obtained as the difference between the formation temperature of a definite amount (65–90 wt %) of the solid phase and the nonequilibrium solidus temperature) is investigated by the example of Al-Cu, Al-Mg, and Al-Si binary systems. It is revealed that the location of the HB peak almost coincides with the calculated ESR peak. A good convergence between the calculated and experimental ESRs is established. The correlation between the HB and calculated ESR is, in general, considerably worse in the studied Al-Cu-Mg, Al-Cu-Si, and Al-Si-Mg ternary systems. It is shown that a correlation between the HB and calculated ESR that is similar to binary systems can be obtained for the radial joins of ternary systems if all alloys compared by the HB are crystallized by identical reactions with the participation of identical phases.