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Transforming detrimental intermetallics by accumulative thermal and strain energies in the Al–Fe–Si alloy

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Abstract

It is well known that the plate-like Al13Fe4 intermetallics are detrimental to the mechanical properties of recycled Al alloys which have higher Fe levels than primary Al. In wrought Al alloys, it is difficult to avoid the formation of primary plate-like Al13Fe4 intermetallics due to its equilibrium nature during solidification and its adaptions of many impurities such as Si, Mn, and Cr to form complex substitutional (Al, Si)13(Fe, Mn)4 crystals during subsequent homogenization and hot deformation. In this study, the influences of hot processing with different Mn and Cr additions and subsequent homogenization and hot transformation have been investigated. When 0.3Mn is added to Al–0.9Fe–0.1Si alloy, the percentage of Al13(Fe, Mn)4 decreases from 0.75 to 0.45% after homogenization of 10 h. When both 0.3Mn and 0.3Cr are added, it will decrease from 1.57 to 0.65%. After 30% hot deformation, it further decreases to 0.40% and 0.35% in 0.3Mn and 0.3Mn + Cr alloy, respectively, resulting in an improvement in elongation by 11.15% and 49.35%. Combined with cold deformation by 20%, Al13(Fe, Mn)4 eventually decreases to 0.30% and 0.24% in 0.3Mn and 0.3Mn + Cr alloys, achieving complete conversion from Al13(Fe, Mn)4 to α-Al15(Fe, Mn)3Si2, and the tensile strength is increased by 23.52% and 19.90%, respectively. To reveal the transformation mechanisms of Fe-rich intermetallics, first-principle calculations are adopted to compare the interfacial energy of Al13Fe4 and α-Al15(Fe, Mn)3Si2 with the Al matrix. It is found that the Al13Fe4 shows a much more faceted nature than the α-Al15(Fe, Mn)3Si2 due to its higher Jackson's α-factor and greater interfacial energy but can be transformed into α-Al15(Fe, Mn)3Si2 at certain thermodynamic conditions.

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Acknowledgements

Great support for the X-ray tomography experiments from the Dr. Pengcheng Mao at the Center for Micro and Nano Technologies, Beijing Institute of Technology is sincerely acknowledged. We are also grateful for tremendous help from all members at the Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) laboratory, Beijing Institute of Technology, China. The authors would like to thank all members in the Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) laboratory, Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science (ARIMS), Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). The research work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China-Guangxi Joint Fund (U20A20276) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project number: 52073030) .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Quan Li, Junsheng Wang, Chengpeng Xue, Shuo Wang, Xinghai Yang, Guangyuan Tian, Hui Su, Xingxing Li & Yisheng Miao

  2. Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Junsheng Wang

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Li, Q., Wang, J., Xue, C. et al. Transforming detrimental intermetallics by accumulative thermal and strain energies in the Al–Fe–Si alloy. J Mater Sci 59, 1699–1720 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09287-5

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