Woon Jae Jung

Effects of Ca Addition on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Mg-RE-Zn Casting Alloy

Influences of Ca addition on microstructures and mechanical properties at room and elevated temperatures up to 300oC have been investigated for EZ43 (Mg-4%RE-3%Zn)-(0~1.2)%Ca permanent mould casting alloys, based on experimental results from optical micrography, X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and mechanical tests. With an increase in Ca content, yield strength is increased gradually at all temperatures, whereas elongation shows a decreasing tendency. High level of tensile strength around 150MPa is maintained until 250oC in the EZ43-0.8Ca and EZ43-1.2Ca alloys, meaning that Ca is very effective for improving elevated temperature strength of the Mg-RE-Zn alloy. The microstructural examinations reveal that Ca refines the a grains markedly, increases discontinuity of Mg12RE network intermetallic compound and dissolves into the Mg12RE phase. The refined a grains and Ca-containing Mg12RE with higher thermal stability are considered to be responsible for the improved mechanical properties at room and elevated temperatures for the EZ43-Ca alloys.

Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of Mg-Zn-RE-Ca Casting Alloys

Influences of Ca addition on microstructures and mechanical properties at room and elevated temperatures up to 300oC were investigated for ZE41 (Mg-4%Zn-1%Zn)-(0~1.0)%Ca permanent mould casting alloys, based on the results from X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and tensile tests. The microstructure of ZE41 alloy is characterized by dendritic α-(Mg) grains surrounded by Mg7Zn3-based eutectic network phase. The average size of α grains decreases continuously with an increase in Ca content. The Ca-containing ZE41 alloys have Mg7Zn3-(RE)-(Ca) eutectic phase, in which Ca is distributed inhomogeneously owing to its strong segregation power. It is noteworthy that tensile yield strength (YS) for the ZE41 alloy was enhanced with increasing Ca content at all temperatures up to 300oC, which demonstrates that Ca can play a beneficial role in improving its tensile strength at room and elevated temperatures. The ZE41 alloy with 0.5%Ca showed the highest ultimate tensile strength (UTS) at room temperature, but in the range of 175 to 300oC, the higher the Ca content, the greater the UTS. The improved tensile strength of the Ca-containing ZE41 alloy would be caused by the refined α grains and higher thermal stability of the Mg7Zn3-(RE)-(Ca) eutectic phase.

Development of Heat Resistant Mg-Al-Ca Based Alloys for Casting and Semi-Solid Forming

Mg-8%Al-1%Ca was selected as a base alloy composition and small amounts of minor alloying elements, RE or Sr, were added. Microstructure of as-cast Mg-8%Al-1%Ca base alloys consists of dendritic primary Mg, Mg-Al-Ca and Mg17Al12 phases. Mg-Al-RE-(Ca) phase in the RE-added alloys and Mg-Al-Sr-(Ca) phase in the Sr-added alloys were additionally found. The creep resistance of Mg-8%Al based alloy was significantly improved by the minor alloying elements additions with 1%Ca. Comparatively globular primary phase could be obtained after just 30min. through an isothermal heating of as-cast Mg-Al-Ca alloys.

Effect of Alloying Elements on the Strength and Casting Characteristics of High Strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloys

Small amounts of various alloying elements were added to a high strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy and their effects on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and casting characteristics were investigated. Silicon additions with or without extra Mg to the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy could enhance the castability such as fluidity, feedability, and hot tearing resistance significantly while maintaining a high strength. However, in these alloys containing silicon the compositional adjustment was necessary to prevent the Mg2Si phase formation from degrading the precipitation of MgZn2 phase that is responsible for the high strength. Zr addition to the base alloy was also observed to improve the feedability without deteriorating the tensile strength.

Microstructure and Properties of Mg-Al Based Casting Alloys Modified with Minor Alloying Elements

Minor alloying elements such as RE, Sb, and Si were added to Mg-Al based commercial alloys and their effects on the mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and castability were investigated.The result show that small amount of cerium-rich misch metal (RE) addition with antimony enhances the heat resistance of AZ91 alloy effectively without deteriorating other good properties. The addition of Si with RE was also found to improve the heat resistance and casting capabilities (fluidity and hot cracking resistance) of AM50 alloy.

Microstructure and Tensile Creep Behavior of Mg-Nd-RE-Ca Casting Alloys

Influences of Ca addition on microstructures and mechanical properties at room and elevated temperatures have been investigated for Mg-1.5%Nd-1.0%RE-0.5%Zn-(0~1.0)%Ca casting alloys, on basis of experimental results from X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), tensile and creep tests. Microstructures of the alloys are characterized by dendritic α-(Mg) grains surrounded by Mg12Nd-Zn-(Ca) eutectic network phase. The average size of α grains decreases gradually with an increase in Ca content. At room temperature, yield strength (YS) is enhanced with increasing Ca content with a decrease in ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation to fracture, whereas the Ca addition leads to greater YS and UTS at 175oC. The tensile creep strain and secondary creep rate, measured at 150 and 200oC under 100MPa for 100hrs, become lower with the increase in Ca content. The obtained tensile properties at elevated temperature demonstrate that the addition of Ca plays a role in improving high temperature mechanical properties including creep resistance for the Mg-Nd-RE-Zn-(Ca) alloys. In view of microstructural evolution, this would be attributed to the refined primary α grains and higher thermal stability of the Mg12Nd-Zn-Ca eutectic strengthening phase.

Development of Mg-Al-Zn Based Diecasting Alloys for Elevated Temperature Applications

Effort has been devoted to develop new heat resistant diecasting alloys based on Mg-Al- Zn system in this research. Small amounts of cerium-rich misch metal and antimony additions to AZ91 alloy could enhance the tensile strength at an elevated temperature while keeping the good castability. The increase of Zn content in Mg-8(wt%)Al-xZn-0.5RE-0.5Sb alloys, was observed to significantly increase the yield strength at 175oC although the castability such as fluidity and hot cracking resistance was slightly decreased. Intensive microstructural investigation on the new Mg- Al-Zn diecasting alloys was also carried out.

Influences of Si and Co Addition on Microstructure and Damping Capacity of Fe-Mn Alloy

Microstructures and damping properties have been investigated in Fe-23%Mn-(0~2)%Si and Fe-23%Mn-(0~2)%Co alloys, based on experimental results from metallography, X-ray diffractometry and vibration test in a flexural mode. The amount and number density of ε martensite are increased with an increase in Co content, resulting in the improvement of damping capacity. For the same ε martensite content, the higher the Co content, the greater the damping capacity. On the contrary, an addition of Si affects to decrease the amount and number density of ε martensite, giving rise to a decay of damping capacity. The decreased ε martensite content by the addition of Si would be attributed to an increase in critical driving force for the γ→ε martensitic transformation by solution hardening effect.

Die-Casting Capabilities of Heat Resistant Mg-Al-Ca Alloys

Various amounts of Ca were added to AZ91D magnesium alloy, and their effects on the die-casting abilities were investigated. It was observed that fluidity as die filling ability tends to decrease by Ca additions except for about 2%Ca. This reduction of fluidity by Ca was more significant at high superheats probably due to the high affinity between Ca and oxygen. Contrary to expectation, hot cracking resistance was found to increase by Ca additions. High Ca alloys showed some die-sticking tendency. However, the tendency was not observed below 2%Ca.

Influence of microstructural change on damping capacity of Mg-X%Li alloys

The Effects of Li content and annealing treatment on microstructure and damping capacity for Mg-X%Li alloys have been investigated, based on experimental results from X-ray diffractometry (XRD), optical microscopy (OM), hardness tests and vibration damping tests in a flexural mode. The Mg-X%Li alloys containing Li of 3%, 8% and 13% consist of α (HCP) single phase, (α + β (BCC)) dual phases and β single phase, respectively. In as-rolled state, the damping capacity for Mg-Li alloys shows a similar level regardless of Li content. The annealing treatments at 200oC and 400οC give rise to an enhancement of damping capacity only for the Mg-3%Li and Mg-8%Li alloys containing α phase, and at the same annealing temperature, the Mg-3%Li alloy with fully α structure exhibits higher damping capacity. This result indicates that the damping capacity of Mg-Li alloys depends principally on α phase, and that the annealing treatment is necessary to improve its damping capacity.