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Microstructure and properties of A357 aluminium

alloy treated by pulsed magnetic field

L. Zhang, W. Zhan, F. Jin & Q. Zhou

To cite this article: L. Zhang, W. Zhan, F. Jin & Q. Zhou (2017): Microstructure and properties of
A357 aluminium alloy treated by pulsed magnetic field, Materials Science and Technology, DOI:
10.1080/02670836.2017.1410925

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Published online: 09 Dec 2017.

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MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1080/02670836.2017.1410925

Microstructure and properties of A357 aluminium alloy treated by pulsed

magnetic field
L. Zhang , W. Zhan, F. Jin and Q. Zhou
School of Aeronautical Manufacture Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This study examined the effects of a pulsed magnetic field (PMF) on the solidified microstructure Received 23 May 2017
and properties of A357 aluminium alloy. Results showed that the solidified microstructure of the Revised 14 August 2017
alloy treated by a PMF was refined. The treated alloy in the T6 state had superior mechanical Accepted 27 September 2017
properties, with the ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and elongation increasing by 48 MPa KEYWORDS
(18.5%), 46 MPa (16.4%) and 4.8% (142%), respectively, when compared with the untreated alloy. Pulsed magnetic field; A357
When testing at room temperature, with a strain amplitude of 1 × 10−4 and at a frequency of 1 Hz, alloy; microstructure;
the damping capacity value was 14.2 × 10−3 for the alloy subjected to a PMF treatment, which mechanical property;
increased by nearly 170% when compared with the untreated alloy. damping capacity

Introduction
Due to their excellent combination of properties,
including good castability, high strength-to-density
ratio, good fatigue, superior corrosion resistance and
good abrasion resistance, the Al–Si cast alloys as one
of the most popular commercial aluminium alloys have
been widely used in the automotive, aerospace and mil-
itary industries. Among typical Al–Si cast alloys in the
aerospace and automobile industries, the hypoeutectic
A357 alloy is employed in numerous applications for
structural components such as the car wheels, the sup-
porting brackets and housings through various casting
processes [1]. However, the mechanical properties of
the A357 alloy, especially the ductility, tensile strength
and fatigue, are limited by the dendritic structure and
coarse acicular eutectic silicon [2,3].
Traditionally, grain refinement of aluminium alloys
is achieved by adding small amounts of Ti and/or B
in form of Al–Ti–B [4] or Al–Ti–C [5] master alloys.
Chemical grain refinement is known to be sensitive
to poisoning alloying additions. The modification of
the eutectic silicon can be achieved by adding small
amounts of Sr, Sb or Na, which promotes the reduc-
tion in size and morphology change of eutectic silicon
flakes in order to obtain a fibrous structure. Despite the
effectiveness of chemical eutectic modification, it has
been suspected to increase porosity and bring about
poor surface quality in castings [6]. In addition, eutectic
modifiers do not promote a dendritic to equiaxed tran-
sition of primary α-Al phase. It was reported that simul-
taneous addition of grain refiner and eutectic modifier
impacted on the effectiveness of both [7].
As an alternative to chemical approach, physico-
mechanical methods have been explored for microstruc-
tural modification of Al–Si cast alloys, which include
mechanical or electromagnetic stirring [8], ultra-
sonic vibration [9] and electromagnetic vibration [10].
Applying an electromagnetic vibration to the solidifi-
cation of metals and alloys during casting is considered
an effective method to improve the microstructure and
benefit the properties of the metals and alloys [11,12].
As a new electromagnetic vibration technology, pulsed
magnetic field (PMF) process has gained increasing
attention in recent years. Ban et al. [13] found PMF can
refine the solidification structure of 2124 Al alloy. Gao
et al. [14] found that PMF can make the solidification
structure of pure Al change from dendrites to globular
shapes. Yang and colleagues applied PMF to the solidifi-
cation of Mg–Al–Zn alloy, AZ91D and Al–Cu alloy and
found that grain refinement was achieved with proper
thermal control [15–17].
Results of our previous research showed that the
eutectic silicon in eutectic Al–Si alloys was signif-
icantly modified under the action of PMF [18,19],
and the mechanical properties of eutectic Al–Si alloys
were increased [18]. Moreover, PMF process has sev-
eral advantages [20–22] such as low investment, high
efficiency, simple equipment, extensive alloy applica-
tion scope, as well as low pollution due to the non-
contact with the melt. However, previous works were
only confined to the analysis of the effects of PMF on
solidified microstructure and mechanical properties.
Little work was conducted on the effect of PMF on
damping capacity. Therefore, the effects of PMF on the

CONTACT L. Zhang lzhang@nchu.edu.cn School of Aeronautical Manufacture Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063,
People’s Republic of China

© 2017 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

2 L. ZHANG ET AL.
microstructures, mechanical properties and damping
capacity of the A357 alloy were discussed in the present
work.
Experimental procedure
The material used for the present investigations was a
commercial A357 alloy (Jiaozuo Wanfang Aluminum
Manufacturing Co., Ltd) and the chemical composition
was listed in Table 1. The experiment was carried out
by using a self-developed PMF solidification apparatus
and a sketch map is shown in Figure 1.
The A357 alloy was melted using a graphite cru-
cible in an electric resistance furnace at 730°C and
then degassed for 10 min with argon gas through a
graphite lance. After degassing, the melt was cooled
to the scheduled pouring temperature of 650°C and
then was poured into a stainless steel crucible preheated
to 450°C. PMF was started immediately after pouring
until the melt completely solidified. The PMF process
details were mentioned elsewhere [18,19]. The PMF
process parameters were briefly summarised as follows:
the discharging voltage was 250 V and the discharging
frequency (numbers of per-second discharging) was
10 Hz.
Microanalysis specimens were cut out of the ingot.
They were polished and etched by Keller’s reagent
(2.5% HNO3 , 1.5% HCl and 1% HF in water), and the
microstructure was characterised by an optical micro-
scope (Neophot-2, Carl-Zeiss, Germany) and a scan-
ning electron microscope (SEM, S-3400, HITACHI,
Japan), and an MIAPS (Micro-image Analysis & Pro-
cess) image analysing soft (Carl-Zeiss, Germany) was
used to determine average grain size.
Tensile tests were performed using a CMT5105 uni-
versal materials testing machine (Taishan Instrument
Table 1. Chemical compositions of A357 alloy investigated
(wt-%).
Alloy Si Mg Ti Fe
A357 0.72 0.7 0.11 0.12
Figure 1. Sketch map of PMF solidification apparatus. (1) Fire-
brick, (2) Ceramic shield, (3) Stainless steel mould, (4) Melt and
(5) PMF generating device.
Co., Ltd, China) with a constant rate of 0.5 mm min−1
at room temperature. Tensile specimens with a gauge
length of 36 mm and a gauge diameter of 6 mm were
made from the longitudinal sections of the specimens.
Before the tensile test, tensile specimens were sub-
jected to a T6 treatment. The specimens were heated
to 545 ± 2°C for 12 h for a solid solution, quenched to
room temperature in water and then aged at 160 ± 2°C
for 6 h. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield
strength (YS) and elongation data of each alloy reported
below were obtained based on the average of four tests.
Fracture surfaces of the tensile specimens were also
characterised by SEM (S-3400, HITACHI, Japan) in
order to evaluate the fracture mechanisms.
Damping capacities were performed using a dyna
mic mechanical thermal analyser (TA Instrument
DMA 2980, NETZSCH, Germany) using the three-
point bending testing mode with dimensions of
5 × 1 × 40 mm3 . The testing conditions were as follows:
the strain amplitude () varied from 8 × 10−5 to 10−3 ,
the vibration frequency (f ) was 0.5, 1, 4 and 10 Hz,
the temperature (T) ranged from room temperature to
250°C and the heating rate was 4°C min−1 .
Results and discussion
Figure 2(a,b) shows the comparison of the obtained
solidified microstructures of A357 alloys without and
with PMF treatment at a lower magnification. As shown
in Figure 2(a), fully developed primary α-Al den-
drites with the average grain size more than 1 mm
were observed in the alloy without PMF treatment.
Figure 2(b) shows that the morphology of primary α-Al
in the alloy treated by PMF changed from dendritic to
rosette-like and near globular. In addition, the primary
α-Al was significantly refined and the average grain
size decreased to 132 ± 14 μm. This finding indicated
that PMF was effective in refining coarse dendrites into
Al
Balance
Figure 2. Microstructures of A357 alloys without (a), (c) and
with (b), (d) PMF treatment.
 MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 3

smaller ones. The morphology and size of individual

eutectic silicon particles were not distinguishable at
such a magnification.
Figure 2(c,d) show the morphologies of eutectic sil-
icon in A357 alloys without and with PMF treatment
at a higher magnification. The coarse acicular eutectic
silicon was observed in the alloy untreated by PMF, as
illustrated in Figure 2(c). However, the eutectic silicon
in the alloy treated by PMF was refined remarkably, and
the morphology of eutectic silicon changed into fibrous,
as Figure 2(d) depicted. The reasons for the forma-
tion of fine primary α-Al and eutectic silicon particles
under the action of PMF had been reported elsewhere
[18,19,22].
Mechanical properties of A357 alloys without and Figure 4. Comparison of the damping capacity of A357 alloys
with PMF treatment as-T6 state are shown in Table 2, without and with PMF treatment as-T6 state at 1 Hz.
which clearly exhibits that the UTS, YS and elon-
gation of the alloy treated by PMF were obviously
were 1 × 10−4 and 1 Hz consistently. Figure 4 clearly
improved. The UTS, YS and elongation of the alloy
shows that the damping capacity of these two materials
with PMF treatment were 398 ± 6 MPa, 327 ± 8 MPa
increased as the temperature increased over the stud-
and 8.7 ± 0.5%, which increased by 18.5%, 16.4% and
ied temperature range. However, the damping capac-
142%, respectively, compared with those of the alloy
ity of the alloy with PMF treatment was much higher
without PMF treatment.
than that of the alloy without PMF treatment in all
Figure 3 shows the tensile fracture surfaces of A357
the cases with studied temperature range. The data in
alloys without and with PMF treatment as-T6 state. One
Figure 4 show that the damping capacity value was
can see that the fracture mechanisms of alloys changed
5.3 × 10−3 for the alloy without PMF treatment and
from cleavage fracture to dimple fracture. As shown
14.2 × 10−3 with PMF treatment at room temperature.
in Figure 3(a), the tensile fracture surface of the alloy
Compared with the alloy without PMF treatment, the
without PMF treatment exhibited the obvious cleavage
damping capacity value of the alloy with PMF treatment
fracture characteristics. However, the appearance of the
increased by nearly 170%. The temperature-dependent
fracture surface of the alloy with PMF treatment was the
damping capacities of the alloy with PMF treatment
apparent ductile fracture, as shown in Figure 3(b). This
as-T6 state in different testing frequency (f = 0.5, 4
different fracture mechanism can contribute to good
and 10 Hz) are displayed in Figure 5. One can see that
performance of the alloy with PMF treatment.
the damping capacity of the alloy with PMF treatment
The curves of damping (tanϕ) vs. temperature (T)
increased as the testing frequency decreased.
plotted during heating for A357 alloys without and
One factor which was greatly altered by the PMF
with PMF treatment as-T6 state are shown in Figure 4.
process was the grain size. A fine-grained microstruc-
The strain amplitude () and the testing frequency (f )
ture was a characteristic of the alloy with PMF
treatment. Discussions on grain boundary viscosity,
Table 2. Mechanical properties of A357 alloys without and with
PMF treatment as-T6 state.
State of sample UTS (MPa) YS (MPa) Elongation (%)
Without PMF 336 ± 5 281 ± 6 3.6 ± 0.3
With PMF 398 ± 6 327 ± 8 8.7 ± 0.5

Figure 3. Tensile fracture morphology of A357 alloys without Figure 5. Damping capacity of the A357 alloy with PMF treat-
(a) and with (b) PMF treatment. ment as-T6 state in different testing frequencies.
4 L. ZHANG ET AL.
relaxation and anelasticity in polycrystalline metals had
shown that viscous flow at grain boundaries would
serve as a source of internal friction. The energy dissi-
pated in grain boundaries was largely dependent upon
the temperature, the shear stress and the anelastic shear
strain. Mulyukov et al. reported that the ultrafine-
grained copper has the high damping capacity [23].
No dislocation was observed inside of the ultrafine
grains. Although a remarkable amplitude dependence
was usually observed when the damping was caused
by dislocation motion, the internal friction of the cop-
per indicated only quite small strain amplitude depen-
dence. As a result, it was suggested that the possible
causes of the high damping capacity were the high den-
sity of the grain boundaries. Given this, the fine-grained
microstructure of the alloy with PMF treatment may
play a partial role in the dissipation of elastic strain
energy considered here. This was evident from Figure 4
that the alloy with PMF treatment exhibited higher
damping capacity than that of the alloy without PMF
treatment at elevated temperatures due to the effects of
the grain boundary damping.
Moreover, the improvement of damping capacity of
the alloy with PMF treatment as-T6 state may result
from the change of eutectic silicon in size. Figure 6
shows the micrographs of the eutectic silicon in A357
alloys without and with PMF treatment as-T6 state. As
shown in Figure 6(a), the rodlike and polyhedral eutec-
tic silicon was observed in the alloy without PMF treat-
ment as-T6 state. The particle size of eutectic silicon in
the alloy with PMF treatment as-T6 state was decreased
and the morphology of eutectic silicon change into
polyhedral and near globular, as shown in Figure 6(b).
Moreover, the amount of eutectic silicon in the alloy
with PMF treatment was obviously increased.
Due to the high elastic modulus of Si particles (about
160 GPa), the dislocation line would loop around the
particles by Orowan looping rather than cut through
them as in dislocation glide under cyclic loading. For
the passage of subsequent dislocations, the smaller
silicon particle in size, the more dislocation genera-
tion. Consequently, these dislocations would become
possible sources of high internal friction because
of the motion of the dislocations during the load-
ing of the alloys [24]. Granato–Lücke mechanism
Figure 6. Micrographs of the eutectic silicon without (a) and
with (b) PMF treatment as-T6 state.
was a well-accepted theory that explained the damp-
ing mechanism by dislocations [25,26]. According
to Granato–Lücke mechanism, material damping was
related to dislocations by the following equation:
C1
Q−1 = ε0 exp(−Cε02 ) (1)
where Q−1 is the dislocation damping,  0 the strain
amplitude, C1 and C2 are material constants and C1
is proportional to dislocation density in the matrix.
Therefore, the dislocation damping was proportional
to dislocation density, as Equation (1) depicted. The
investigative results of Kê [27] indicated that the
damping capacity of pure Al was the function of
(G.S.) × f × exp(H/RT), where G.S. is the grain size, f
is the frequency, H is the activation energy and T is
the temperature. According to the relations mentioned
above, damping capacity was proportional to tempera-
ture, and inversely proportional to frequency and grain
size. Results of the present investigation (see Figures 4
and 5) corresponded well with the achievement of Kê.
Conclusions
The solidified microstructure of the A357 alloy with
PMF treatment was significantly refined. The average
grain size of primary α-Al was decreased from more
than 1 mm to 132 μm and the morphology of primary
α-Al changed from dendritic to rosette-like and near
globular. The eutectic silicon changed from coarse aci-
cular to fine fibrous morphology.
The mechanical properties of the A357 alloy with
PMF treatment were improved. Compared with the
alloy without PMF treatment, the UTS, YS and elonga-
tion of the alloy with PMF treatment were 398 ± 6 MPa,
327 ± 8 MPa and 8.7 ± 0.5%, which increased by
48 MPa (18.5%), 46 MPa (16.4%) and 4.8% (142%),
respectively.
The A357 alloy with PMF treatment as-T6 state
exhibited much higher damping capacity than that of
the alloy without PMF treatment. With the testing
condition of room temperature, strain amplitude of
1 × 10−4 and frequency of 1 Hz, the damping capac-
ity value was 14.2 × 10−3 for the alloy treated by PMF,
which increased by nearly 170%, compared with the
alloy untreated by PMF.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
The research work was supported by National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China [grant number 51401102].
ORCID
L. Zhang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9377-6136
 MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 5

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