Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

 Microsegregation is one of the most important phenomena occurs during solidification. It usually results in formation of some unexpected second phases which generally affect the mechanical properties and specially reduce the workability of casting products. The aim of this research is to study the effect of cooling rate and grain refinement on the microsegregation in Al-4.8 wt.% Cu. For this purpose two series of experiments were designed. In the first set of experiments, the alloy was melted and cooled in three different rates, i.e. 0.04, 0.42, and 1.08 K/s in a DTA furnace. In the second series of experiments, the effect of grain refinement on the microsegregation at a constant cooling rate of 0.19 K/s was investigated. Al-5Ti-1B master alloy was used as grain refiner. Results showed that by increasing the cooling rate the amount of non-equilibrium eutectic phase increases from 5.1 to 7.4 wt.%, and the minimum concentration of solute element in primary phase decreases from 1.51 to 1.05 wt.% Cu. By grain refinement of the alloy, the amount of non-equilibrium eutectic phase decreases from 5.5 to 4.7 wt.%, and the minimum concentration of solute element in the primary phase increases from 0.98 to 1.07 wt.% Cu. So it is concluded that increasing cooling rate in the range of 0.04 to 1.08 K/s, increases and grain refinement reduces the microsegregation 

Because the partition coefficient is one of the most important parameters affecting microsegregation, the aim of this research is to experimentally analyse the partition coefficient in Al-Mg alloys. In order to experimentally measure the partition coefficient, a series of quenching experiments during solidification were carried out. For this purpose binary Al-Mg alloys containing 6.7 and 10.2 wt-% Mg were melted and solidified in a DTA furnace capable of quenching samples during solidification. Cooling rates of 0.5 and 5 K/min were used and samples were quenched from predetermined temperatures during solidification. The fractions and compositions of the phases were measured by quantitative metallography and SEM/EDX analyses, respectively. These results were used to measure the experimental partition coefficients. The resultant partition coefficients were used to model the concentration profile in the primary phase and the results were compared with equilibrium calculations and experimental profiles. The results of calculations based on the experimental partition coefficients show better consistency with experimental concentration profiles than the equilibrium calculations.