Improvement in mechanical properties of hypereutectic Al-Si-Cu alloys through sonosolidified slurry

For the wider applications,it is necessary to improve the ductility as well as the strength and wear-resistance of hypereutectic AlSi-Cu alloys,which are typical light-weight wear-resistant materials.An increase in the amounts of primary silicon particles causes the modified wear-resistance of hypereutectic Al-Si-Cu alloys,but leads to the poor strength and ductility.It is known that dual phase steels composed of hetero-structure have succeeded in bringing contradictory mechanical properties of high strength and ductility concurrently.In order to apply the idea of hetero-structure to hypereutectic Al-Si-Cu alloys for the achievement of high strength and ductility along with wear resistance,ultrasonic irradiation of the molten metal during the solidification,which is called sono-solidification,was carried out from its molten state to just above the eutectic temperature.The sono-solidified Al-17Si-4Cu alloy is composed of hetero-structure,which are,hard primary silicon particles,soft non-equilibrium a-Al phase and the eutectic region.Rheo-casting was performed at just above the eutectic temperature with sono-solidified slurry to shape a disk specimen.After the rheo-casting with modified sonosolidified slurry held for 45 s at 570 oC,the quantitative optical microscope observation exhibits that the microstructure is composed of 18area%of hard primary silicon particles and 57area%of soft a-Al phase.In contrast,there exist only 5 area%of primary silicon particles and no a-Al phase in rheo-cast specimen with normally solidified slurry.Hence the tensile tests of T6 treated rheo-cast specimens with modified sono-solidified slurry exhibit improved strength and 5%of elongation,regardless of having more than 3 times higher amounts of primary silicon particles compared to that of rheo-cast specimen with normally solidified slurry.