%0 Journal Article
%T Changes in Structural Characteristics of Hypoeutectic Al-Si Cast Alloy after Age Hardening
%A Lenka HURTALOV¨˘
%A Juraj BELAN
%A Eva TILLOV¨˘
%A M¨˘ria CHALUPOV¨˘
%J Materials Science
%D 2012
%I Kaunas University of Technology
%R 10.5755/j01.ms.18.3.2430
%X The contribution describes influence of the age-hardening consist of solution treatment at 515 ˇăC with holding time 4 hours, water quenching at 40 ˇăC and artificial aging at different temperature 150 ˇăC, 170 ˇăC and 190 ˇăC with different holding time 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 hours on mechanical properties (tensile strength and Brinell hardness) and changes in morphology of eutectic Si, Fe-rich and Cu-rich intermetallic phases in secondary (recycled) AlSi9Cu3 cast alloy. A combination of different analytical techniques (light microscopy upon black-white and colour etching, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) upon deep etching and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX)) were therefore been used for the identification of the various phases. Quantitative study of changes in morphology of eutectic Si, Cu-rich and Fe-rich phases was carried out using Image Analyzer software NIS-Elements. Mechanical properties were measured in line with EN ISO. Age-hardening led to changes in microstructure include the spheroidization and coarsening of eutectic silicon, gradual disintegration, shortening and thinning of Fe- rich intermetallic phases, the dissolution of precipitates and the precipitation of finer hardening phase (Al2Cu) further increase in the hardness and tensile strength in the alloy. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.18.3.2430
%K Al-Si-Cu cast alloys
%K solution treatment
%K age-hardening
%K Cu-rich phase
%U http://www.matsc.ktu.lt/index.php/MatSc/article/view/2430