combined effects of ultrasonic vibration and manganese on fe-containing inter-metallic compounds and mechanical properties of al-17si alloy with 3wt.%fe

The research studied the combined effects of ultrasonic vibration (USV) and manganese on the Fe-containing inter-metallic compounds and mechanical properties of Al-17Si-3Fe-2Cu-1Ni (wt.%) alloys. The results showed that, without USV, the alloys with 0.4wt.% Mn or 0.8wt.% Mn both contain a large amount of coarse plate-like δ-Al4(Fe,Mn)Si2 phase and long needle-like β-Al5(Fe,Mn)Si phase. When the Mn content changes from 0.4wt.% to 0.8wt.% in the alloys, the amount and the length of needle-like β-Al5(Fe,Mn)Si phase decrease and the plate-like δ-Al4(Fe,Mn)Si2 phase becomes much coarser. After USV treatment, the Fe-containing compounds in the alloys are refined and exist mainly as δ-Al4(Fe,Mn)Si2 particles with an average grain size of about 20 μm, and only a small amount of β-Al5(Fe,Mn)Si phase remains. With USV treatment, the ultimate tensile strengths (UTS) of the alloys containing 0.4wt.%Mn and 0.8wt.%Mn at room temperature are 253 MPa and 262 MPa, respectively, and the ultimate tensile strengths at 350 °C are 129 MPa and 135 MPa, respectively. It is considered that the modified morphology and uniform distribution of the Fe-containing inter-metallic compounds, which are caused by the USV process, are the main reasons for the increase in the tensile strength of these two alloys.