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Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

A forced convection stirring process for Rheo-HPDC aluminum and


magnesium alloys
Mingfan Qi a, , Yonglin Kang a , Bing Zhou a , Wanneng Liao a , Guoming Zhu a , Yangde Li b ,
Weirong Li b
a
b

School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Dongguan EONTEC Corporation, Ltd., Dongguan 523662, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 19 November 2015
Received in revised form 2 April 2016
Accepted 4 April 2016
Available online 5 April 2016
Keywords:
Forced convection stirring process
Semisolid slurries
Rheo-HPDC
Microstructure
Mechanical properties

a b s t r a c t
A simplied process, namely forced convection stirring (FCS), was proposed to prepare four different
semisolid slurries of Al and Mg alloys. A simple rheological high pressure die-casting (Rheo-HPDC) process
was developed by combining the FCS device with a HPDC machine. The temperature and composition
elds of the melt in the FCS process were simulated. The microstructures and mechanical properties
of the alloys formed by the FCS Rheo-HPDC were studied and compared with those formed by HPDC
and other Rheo-HPDC processes. The results showed that the FCS process can prepare slurries in which
the primary particles are ne, spherical and uniformly distributed in the matrix and the process can
effectively suppress macrosegregation. The strong convection rapidly promotes the uniformity of the
temperature and composition of the melt. Compared to HPDC and other Rheo-HPDC alloys, the alloys
formed by FCS Rheo-HPDC have an improved ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, elongation and
hardness, due to the renement of microstructure and the decrease of porosity. Heat treatments can be
utilized to further enhance the mechanical properties of FCS Rheo-HPDC alloys.
2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
For the past few years, in order to provide solutions to environmental and energy issues, the importance of Al and Mg alloys
as light-weight metals has been widely recognized, especially in
the elds of 3C (computer, communication and consumer electronics) and automotive (Sui et al., 2015). Nowadays, high pressure
die-casting (HPDC) is the process that is primarily used for manufacturing the majority of Al and Mg alloys applications, due to
its low cost and high efciency. However, Jin et al. (2015) demonstrated that many porosities, caused by gas entrapment during the
high speed mold lling, exist in HPDC parts. Cceres and Selling
(1996) showed that porosity can seriously decrease mechanical
performance by serving as local strain concentration. Porosity also
causes issues during heat treatment, where heat results in the
expansion of air within the pores, creating bubbling in HPDC parts.
Improvement of the HPDC process to form parts with high
quality and increased performance is thus of highly worthwhile.
Flemings (1991) demonstrated that the Rheo-HPDC technique can

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: qimfan@163.com (M. Qi).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2016.04.003
0924-0136/ 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

be used to prepare high quality parts. Compared to traditional


HPDC, Rheo-HPDC provides parts with many advantages such as
low porosity, heat treatability and high performance. In the RheoHPDC process, the liquid metal is initially turned into semisolid
slurry and then the slurry is shaped directly using a HPDC machine.
Various preparation processes have been developed to prepare the
semisolid slurry. The twin-screw stirring process was studied by
Fan et al. (2005), the gas induced semisolid (GISS) process was
reported by Wannasin et al. (2006) and the serpentine channel
pouring (SCP) process was used by Liu et al. (2015). These preparation techniques have been widely studied and used in labs, and are
able to prepare semisolid slurries with equiaxed microstructures.
However, many drawbacks still exist, such as difculties in cleaning
up the devices and complicated disassembly and installation of the
devices, which limit their extensive use for industrial applications.
In order to deal with the issues that exist in the slurry preparation, a self-developed forced convection stirring (FCS) device was
designed for the preparation of semisolid slurry by Zhou et al.
(2014a,b). It is an environmentally friendly device with a simple
operational process and low cost, and it can run continuously without cleanup. It is convenient to combine a FCS device with HPDC
machines to develop a Rheo-HPDC process and such procedure is
termed as, FCS Rheo-HPDC.

354

M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

Table 1
Chemical compositions (wt.%) and freezing ranges ( C) of the Al-alloys and Mg-alloy.
Alloy

Si

A356
A380
7075
AZ91D

6.93 0.01
8.47 3.18
0.12 2.01
0.04 <0.01

Cu

Mn

Fe

0.01 0.17
0.27 1.05
0.01 0.20
0.20 <0.01

Zn

Cr

Ti

Mg

Al

TL

TS

TL-S

0.01
1.58
5.12
0.66

0.23

0.15

0.12
<0.01

0.38
0.09
2.48
Bal.

Bal.
Bal.
Bal.
9.45

615
585
640
598

560
504
477
468

55
81
163
130

In this work, the semisolid slurries of A356, A380 and 7075


Al-alloys, as such of AZ91D Mg-alloy were prepared by the FCS
process and then formed by HPDC machines to four different parts
or quenched by water to ingots. The effect of the FCS process on
the microstructure and macrosegregation of ingots was studied.
The microstructure, porosity and mechanical properties of the FCS
Rheo-HPDC alloys were studied and compared to those formed by
HPDC and other Rheo-HPDC processes. Based on heat transfer and
hydrodynamics, the effect of the rotation speed on temperature,
composition and solid fraction were simulated by the commercial
computational uid dynamic software Flow-3D.

prepared without FCS treatment at the same pouring temperature,


to study the effect of the FCS action on the microstructure and
macrosegregation of the alloys, and this procedure was termed as
normal casting (NC).
2.4. Microstructure observation
The microstructure samples of the Rheo-HPDC parts were prepared from regions A, B, C and D, as shown in Fig. 2. The samples
were ground, polished and then etched using a 0.5 vol.% solution
of HF for regions A, B and C, and a 4 vol.% solution of nitric acid in
ethanol for region D. The microstructures were observed by an optical microscopy (OM) and a scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
The fractured surfaces of tensile samples were also evaluated by
SEM. The average particle size was measured using an Image Tool
3.0 software, and the shape factor was dened as:
F=

4S
L2

(1)

2. Experimental procedure

where S and L are the area and perimeter of the particle, respectively.

2.1. FCS process

2.5. Element concentration and tensile testing

The FCS device is presented in Fig. 1. It consists of a stirring system, a temperature control system and a discharge system. The
stirring system contains a stirring rod equipped with a helicoid
blade, and its major function is to turn the melt into high-quality
semisolid slurry under the FCS action. There are huge amounts
of changing interfacial areas among the solidifying melt, helicoid
blade and barrel during slurry preparation. This makes the preparation process of slurry signicantly efcient for fast heat dissipation.
Heating cables are twined around the stainless steel barrel wall.
The discharge operation is controlled by a discharge handle and a
graphite blockage, which are linked using a center pin. It should be
noted that a graphite lining is embedded in the stirring chamber
for solving sticking problem.

To study the effect of the FCS on the macrosegregation of ingots,


the detection of the element concentration was performed by an
inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ACPAES). The segregation ratio () may be estimated as follows:

2.2. Raw materials


The alloys, including commercially available cast Al-alloys A356
and A380, a commercially available wrought Al-alloy 7075, and a
commercially available cast Mg-alloy AZ91D, are used in this work.
Table 1 lists the chemical compositions and freezing ranges of the
four alloys.
2.3. Slurry preparation and FCS rheo-HPDC
The alloys were melted in top-loading resistance furnaces at the
temperature of 70 C above their liquidus. The melt was cooled to
a pouring temperature (030 C above their liquidus) after drossing and degassing. Then the melt was poured into the pre-heated
FCS device. The detailed melt mass and FCS process parameters
are listed in Table 2. After the melt was stirred to a preset time,
the semisolid slurry with a certain solid fraction was prepared and
was sent into the shot sleeve of a HPDC machine to form parts. The
detailed HPDC machine models and HPDC process parameters are
also listed in Table 2 and the photographs of forming parts are presented in Fig. 2. For comparison, traditional HPDC parts were also
prepared without FCS treatment under the same pouring temperature and HPDC parameters.
This study not only focuses on Rheo-HPDC, but also on the
preparation of semisolid ingots. The prepared slurry owed into
round graphite crucibles and, following quenching, semisolid
ingots acquired, with a diameter of 200 mm. Similar ingots were

=

Ci Ca
100%
Ca

(2)

where Ci is the element mass percent in a particular location, and


Ca is the average element mass percent in the whole radial ingot.
Rectangular cross-sections of tensile samples were cut from
regions E, F, G and H according to ASTM E8 M (Fig. 2). The dimensions of the samples were 3 mm 1.6 mm with a gauge length of
13 mm. Following ASTM B557, the mechanical properties, including
ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS) and elongation
to failure, were performed using a universal testing machine at
room temperature. The tensile value was an average of ten tests.
Hardness testing was performed by a low load Vickers hardness
tester at a load of 100 gf.
2.6. Numerical simulation
Flow-3D software was used in the numerical simulation of temperature and composition of the 7075 alloy melt in the FCS device.
First, the simplied 3D solid model was created by Pro/E software,
as shown in Fig. 3a. Second, the normal joint mode IGES le was
outputted. Third, the le was imported into the Meshing-Geometry
Block. The nal numerical model with grid nodes of 160000 is
shown in Fig. 3b. Fourth, some parameters were set in the PreProcessing Module. The simulated results were acquired through
the Post-Processing Block after calculation. Flow-3D software was
also used for simulating the temperature eld distribution of
the auto control arm parts of A356 alloy during lling. The specic parameters and computation conditions of both are listed in
Table 3, and the materials models of the 7075 and A356 alloys were
selected from the materials database of Flow-3D. It should be noted
that the slurry is considered as a non-Newtonian uid, the rheological behavior of which governs the way it ows. Viscosity is a
most important property that controls rheological behavior, and
Carreaus model was offered to reect the change of the apparent viscosity in Flow-3D. Li et al. (2014) studied the effect of solid
fraction on the apparent viscosity of the 7075 alloy slurry under

M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

355

Fig. 1. The schematic diagram (a) and actual image (b) of the integrated FCS device.

Table 2
The detailed melt mass and process parameters for the slurry preparation and part forming.
Alloy

The melt mass and FCS process parameters for the slurry preparation

HPDC machine models and HPDC parameters for the part forming

Melt mass Pouring temperature Rotation speed Barrel temperature Stirring time Model Injection

A356
A380
7075
AZ91D

kg

2.8
3.2
5.7
3.0

640
615
640
610

rad.s

18.84
18.84
6.2818.84
18.84

590
550
600
560

s
20
25
15
20

YIZUMI DM400
FUXIN XT650
YIZUMI DM400
TOSHIBA DC1250J-MC

speed Injection pressure Mold temperature


m.s1

MPa

2.0
1.8
2.0
1.5

70
75
80
70

220
250
220
210

Table 3
Detailed parameters and initial conditions for simulation.
Simulation of the temperature and composition of the 7075 alloy melt

Simulation of the temperature eld of A356 alloy parts

Input

Value

Input

Value

Initial melt temperature/ C


Initial melt volume/ml
Initial barrel temperature/ C
Initial stirring rod temperature/ C
Rotation speed/rad.s1
Thermal conductivity of graphite sleeve/ (Wm1 K1 )
Thermal conductivity of stirring shaft/ (Wm1 K1 )
Heat transfer of uid/ (Wm2 K1 )

640
2000
600
600
6.28, 12.56, 18.84
129
23.4
20000

Initial melt temperature/ C


Mold temperature/ C
Slow injection speed/ (ms1 )
Fast injection speed/ (ms1 )
Thermal conductivity of mold/ (Wm1 K1 )
Heat transfer of cast/mold/ (Wm2 K1 )

605
220
0.25
2.0
28.6
3000

different shearing rates, and the equations of Carreaus model are


tted as follows:
 = 0.0135 +

ET = exp 143

3.1. Temperature eld

100ET 0.0135

1 + (0.25ET )2  2

0.4

(3)



273
0.527
T 355.6

(4)

where  is the apparent viscosity of slurry,  is the shearing rate


and T is the temperature of slurry.
Fu and Wang (2014) introduced the relationship among the
apparent viscosity, shearing rate and solid fraction of the A356 alloy
slurry, and the equations for A356 alloy also give:
 = 0.0025 +

105 ET 0.0025

1 + (100.792ET )2  2

ET = exp 1553.7

3. Simulation results

0.6

(5)

Fig. 4 shows the temperature eld of the melt in a FCS device


during slurry preparation. The melt experiences strong convection caused by the axial ow and circular ow, as reported in the
paper by Zhou et al. (2014a,b). By increasing the stirring time, the
temperature eld is signicantly improved, and the temperature

Table 4
The average element concentration in the whole radial ingot (Ca ) and the average
segregation ratio () of 7075 alloy ingots prepared by NC and FCSC.
Element

Casting process

Ca / (wt.%)

/%

Zn

NC
FCSC
NC
FCSC
NC
FCSC

5.4
5.3
2.5
2.5
2.2
2.1

6.9
5.7
8.6
4.5
11.6
5.9

Mg



273
0.25
T + 233.362

(6)

Cu

356

M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

Fig. 2. Photographs of the four different parts formed by FCS Rheo-HPDC technology.

Fig. 3. The simplied 3D model (a) and generation mesh (b) of the FCS device.

M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

357

Fig. 4. Temperature eld simulation of the melt in a FCS device at different stirring time.

Fig. 5. Distribution simulation of the particles in a FCS device at different stirring time.

difference is eliminated when the stirring time is 10 s. Such conditions are favorable for the formation of spherical grains.

4. Experimental results
4.1. Effect of FCS on microstructure

3.2. Composition eld


A random tracer particle method (Jiang et al., 2008) was used
to analyze the effect of FCS on the composition distribution. The
simulated results are shown in Fig. 5. It is shown that the initially
aggregated random particles are quickly dispersed over time and
eventually uniformly distributed in the melt under strong convection.

The microstructures of A356, A380, 7075 and AZ91D alloy ingots


prepared by FCS casting (FCSC) and NC are shown in Fig. 6. The
detailed experimental conditions are listed in Table 2. Fig. 6ad
shows the microstructures of ingots without FCS treatment. Typical
dendritic primary -Al/-Mg (1 -Al/1 -Mg) particles with the size
of more than 100 m are obviously observed. Fig. 6eh shows the
microstructures of ingots treated by FCS. It can be seen that, after
FCS treatment, non-dendritic 1 -Al/1 -Mg particles are uniformly

358

M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

Fig. 6. Microstructures of the four different alloy ingots prepared by NC and FCSC: (a) A356-NC, (b) A380-NC, (c) 7075-NC, (d) AZ91D-NC, (e) A356-FCSC, (f) A380-FCSC, (g)
7075-FCSC, (h) AZ91D-FCSC.

dispersed in the liquid matrix, and the particles are much smaller
and rounder in comparison to NC microstructures.

change from NC to FCSC, the segregation ratio of Zn decreases from


6.9% to 5.7%, the segregation ratio of Mg decreases from 8.6% to 4.5%
and the segregation ratio of Cu decreases from 11.6% to 5.9%.

4.2. Effect of FCS on macrosegregation


4.3. Effect of rotation speed
Fig. 7a shows the radial element concentration evolution of the
NC and FCSC 7075 Al-alloy ingots. Fig. 7b shows a sketch of the six
tested locations. Table 4 lists the average element concentration in
the whole radial ingot and the average segregation ratio. With the

Fig. 8 shows the temperature and solid fraction simulations as


well as the microstructures of the 7075 Al-alloy melt at different
rotation speeds. The change of the temperature difference over time

M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

359

Fig. 7. The radial element concentration evolution of the NC and FCSC 7075 Al-alloy ingots (a) and a sketch of the six tested locations (b).

Fig. 8. Temperature and solid fraction simulations as well as the microstructures of the 7075 Al-alloy melt at different rotation speeds.

is measured and shown in Fig. 9. As the rotation speed is 6.28 rad/s,


the melt near the barrel wall and helicoid blade cools rapidly and
new grains form quickly (Fig. 8a). However, the central melt cools
slowly only by heat conduction within the melt and fewer grains
form (Fig. 8a). The large temperature difference (Fig. 9) causes nonuniformity, coarseness and rosiness of primary particles (Fig. 8a).
As the rotation speed increases to 12.56 rad/s, the temperature and
solid fraction distributions change greatly. The temperature dif-

ference of the melt is limited to 2 C after stirring for 7 s (Fig. 9),


and the primary particles become ner and rounder by increasing
convection (Fig. 8b). When the rotation speed reaches 18.84 rad/s,
the temperature difference throughout the melt is only 1 C after
stirring for 6 s (Fig. 9). The small undercooling gradient helps to
decrease the possibility that the particles grow into dendrites and
improve them in the quantity and morphology (Fig. 8c).

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M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

Fig. 9. Temperature difference variation of the melt over stirring time at different
rotation speeds.

Fig. 10. Effect of the rotation speed on the average size and shape factor of 1 -Al
particles.

0.88. The results indicate that increasing rotation speed can greatly
improve slurry quality.
Fig. 10 shows the average size and shape factor of 1 -Al particles at different rotation speeds. It shows that the quantitative
analysis results are in agreement with the microstructure observation in Fig. 8. When the rotation speed increases from 6.28 rad/s
to 18.84 rad/s, the average size of the 1 -Al particles decreases
from 91 m to 64 m, and the shape factor increases from 0.61 to

4.4. Pore defect of FCS rheo-HPDC parts


Fig. 11 shows the temperature distribution and pore defect of
parts formed by Rheo-HPDC and HPDC. It is evident that the location of pores is consistent with the simulation by observing actual
cross sections. The number of pores that was formed by both tech-

Fig. 11. Pore defects of control arm parts at different locations by HPDC and FCS Rheo-HPDC.

M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

361

with areas ranging between pinholes to more than 15 mm2 . In contrast, the FCS Rheo-HPDC process has greatly reduced the amount
of pores. Firstly, the number of pores is generally decreased for the
area less than 5 mm2 , and the pore number is basically eliminated
for the area over 10 mm2 . Secondly, the total pore areas from the
amplication locations of HPDC and Rheo-HPDC parts, as shown in
Fig. 11, are 734 and 182 mm2 respectively. The pore areas of RheoHPDC parts have been decreased by 3 times in comparison to that
of the HPDC parts.
4.5. Microstructure of FCS rheo-HPDC parts

Fig. 12. Number of pores at different locations in Fig. 11.

niques, at the different locations of the parts, was counted, as shown


in Fig. 12. The distinct difference between both is not only in the
quantity but also in size. The HPDC parts have numerous pores

Fig. 13 shows the microstructures observed in auto shock


absorber parts of A380 alloy at different regions, by HPDC and FCS
Rheo-HPDC. Many coarse dendrites are observed in the microstructure of the HPDC parts (Fig. 13ac). The casting defects, such as
shrinkage void and gas porosity, can be found in the three regions.
However, numerous ne spherical 1 -Al particles and no dendrites
are observed in the Rheo-HPDC parts (Fig. 13df). The solid content
of Rheo-HPDC parts at regions A and B is higher than that of region
C due to a slower ow velocity of primary particles during lling,
according to Jiang and Wang (2015).
Fig. 14 shows the eutectic silicon morphology of HPDC and
FCS Rheo-HPDC A380 Al-alloy parts. In HPDC parts, the eutectic

Fig. 13. Microstructures of HPDC (a-c) and FCS Rheo-HPDC (d-f) A380 alloy shock absorber parts at different regions: (a), (d) region A; (b), (e) region B; (c), (f) region C.

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M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

Fig. 14. The eutectic silicon morphology of HPDC (a) and FCS Rheo-HPDC (b) A380 alloy parts.

Fig. 15. Microstructures of AZ91D alloy steering wheel parts formed by HPDC and FCS Rheo-HPDC as well as EDX line-scans: (a) HPDC AZ91D; (b) FCS Rheo-HPDC AZ91D;
(c) EDX line-scan for HPDC AZ91D in (a); (d) EDX line-scan for Rheo-HPDC AZ91D in (b).

silicon is coarser and long needle/plate-like, which dissevers the


matrix seriously (Fig. 14a). In Rheo-HPDC parts, however, the silicon phase is rened greatly and reveals short-bar-shape (Fig. 14b).
By altering the process from HPDC to Rheo-HPDC, the average size
of eutectic silicon decreases from 7.5 to 3.1 m in length, and the
average width decreases from 0.8 to 0.7 m. The aspect ratio is also
decreased from 9.4 to 4.4.
Fig. 15 shows the comparison between the solidication
microstructures of steering wheel parts of AZ91D alloy at the region
D formed by HPDC and FCS Rheo-HPDC processes. For the HPDC
processed parts in Fig. 15a, well-developed dendrites and many
pores are clearly observed, and the parts show a segregation of 1 Mg phase, decreasing the uniformity of the microstructure. A high
magnication image, in the inset of Fig. 15a, indicates that the irregular 1 -Mg particles, and the 1 -Mg boundaries are delineated by
discrete precipitates of the intermetallic -phase. However, RheoHPDC parts of AZ91D alloy show a clear improvement in both
microstructural renement and uniformity (Fig. 15b). The 1 -Mg
phase is uniformly distributed, while no pore is found. A high magnication image, in the inset of Fig. 15b, shows the very ne 2 -Mg
particles (less than 10 m) resulting from the rapid solidication
of the remaining liquid at the secondary solidication stage (Fan
et al., 2005), decorated by the net-like -phase.

The Al gradients of -Mg particles were tested by EDX line-scan


and two typical examples are shown in Fig. 15. It indicates that the
Al gradients in HPDC parts are much more pronounced than that of
the FCS Rheo-HPDC parts. It is also noted that in Rheo-HPDC parts,
2 -Mg particles show steeper Al gradients than 1 -Mg.
4.6. Mechanical properties
The mechanical properties of the four FCS Rheo-HPDC alloys in
the as-cast condition are listed in Table 5, and compared to those of
the same alloy formed by HPDC and other Rheo-HPDC techniques.
The FCS Rheo-HPDC alloys generally showed improved ultimate
tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS) and elongation, when
compared to those formed by HPDC and other Rheo-HPDC, and the
increasing rates are all over 10% in comparison to HPDC alloys. It is
found that the hardness of the FCS Rheo-HPDC alloys increases as
well.
The mechanical properties of FCS Rheo-HPDC parts heat treated
under different conditions are also listed in Table 5. Generally, in
comparison to the as-cast parts, FCS Rheo-HPDC parts with T4 treatment have substantially higher UTS and elongation, but an inferior
YS. Further improving strength of parts can be acquired by T6 treatment, while with some loss of ductility compared to the as-cast
condition.

M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

363

Table 5
Statistics of the particle size, shape factor, porosity level and mechanical properties of the four alloys formed by different processes and mechanical properties of FCS
Rheo-HPDC alloys heat treated under different conditions.
Alloy

Process

Average size and shape factor of grains


1 -Mg/1 -Al

Shape factor

(m)

Mechanical properties

2 -Mg/2 -Al

Porosity level

UTS

YS

Elongation

Hardness

(m)

(%)

(MPa)

(MPa)

(%)

(HV)

A356

IUV Rheo-HPDC (Wu et al., 2012)


GISS Rheo-HPDC (Thanabumrungkul et al., 2010)
ISCT Rheo-HPDC (Li et al., 2011)
HPDC (this work)
FCS Rheo-HPDC (this work)
FCS Rheo-HPDC + T4
FCS Rheo-HPDC + T6

75
67
52
135
41

0.62
0.65
0.82
0.31
0.81

24
7
8

1.0

2.1
0.5

254
235
242
221 17
260 6
275 8
323 10

135 6
181 4
166 6
232 7

7.5
7.4
12.5
3.7 1.4
8.4 0.5
13.6 1
7.3 0.8

73
71 9
79 5
82 7
93 8

A380

LSPSF Rheo-HPDC (Guo and Yang, 2008)


SCP Rheo-HPDC (Chen et al., 2011)
HPDC (this work)
FCS Rheo-HPDC (this work)
FCS Rheo-HPDC + T4
FCS Rheo-HPDC + T6

41
34
47
22

0.84
0.69
0.35
0.85

13
8

1.3

1.7
0.4

263
303
272 16
310 8
321 11
328 9

164

147 5
217 7
173 8
246 8

4.3
5.1
2.8 0.9
5.3 0.4
7.1 0.8
4.5 0.6

110
105 10
119 7
130 7
137 10

7075

ICSPC Rheo-HPDC (Yang et al., 2013)


CSIR Rheo-HPDC + T6 (Curle and Govender, 2010)
HPDC (this work)
FCS Rheo-HPDC (this work)
FCS Rheo-HPDC + T6

44
82
169
61

0.84
0.85
0.43
0.88

9
6

1.9
0.3

292
516
281 25
337 11
543 15

458
222 9
249 6
506 9

3.1
4.5
1.6 0.9
5.2 0.6
4.1 0.7

86 14
96 11
172 15

TBR Rheo-HPDC (Yang et al., 2010)


RCP Rheo-HPDC (Aguilar et al., 2005)
Twin-screw Rheo-HPDC (Fan et al., 2006)
NRC Rheo-HPDC (Kaufmann and Uggowitzer, 2001)
HPDC (this work)
FCS Rheo-HPDC (this work)
FCS Rheo-HPDC + T4
FCS Rheo-HPDC + T6

44
155
40
81
84
23

0.78
0.76
0.78
0.74
0.35
0.82

21
14
6
7

1.7

0.3

2.0
0.4

225
255
248
210
200 15
265 7
270 8
282 7

138
157
145
125
144 8
169 7
110 5
171 8

4.5
2.3
7.4
4.0
2.5 0.7
7.1 0.4
11.3 0.6
5.8 0.4

77

83 11
95 7
86 6
107 9

Fig. 16. SEM images of FCS Rheo-HPDC parts of AZ91D alloy after T4 heat treatment (a) and T6 heat treatment (b).

Solution treatment of the AZ91D part at 420 C for 12 h causes


a total dissolution of the hard brittle Mg17 Al12 eutectic phase and
homogenizes the aluminum throughout the matrix (Fig. 16a). After
the ageing process of the supersaturated solid solution at 175 C
for 24 h (T6 condition), the microstructure is characterized by the
presence of discontinuous precipitates (Fig. 16b), rather than the
existence of the continuous precipitates as reported by Duly et al.
(1995) and Clark (1968). The discontinuous phase involves the
formation of a laminar combination of -Mg and Mg17 Al12 phases
on grain boundaries as shown in the inset of Fig. 16b. Bradai et al.
(1999) found that the grain boundaries are preferred places for the
nucleation of discrete precipitates.
Fig. 17 shows the fracture surfaces of AZ91D alloy parts under
different conditions. As shown in Fig. 17a, many pores are observed
in the fracture surface of HPDC parts. Fig. 17b is the large magnication fractograph of a pore. The length and width of the pore are
32 and 12 m, respectively. Only a little fracture characteristic of
torn edge is around the pore. Also, the depth of the pore is very

large. Such pores act as the fracture source while applying load to
parts and accelerate the fracture process. Compared to HPDC parts,
the fracture surfaces of parts formed by FCS Rheo-HPDC indicate
typical ductile dimple fracture mode and no pore zone is found in
the fractographs (Fig. 17c and d). Some tearing edges appear in the
fractograph of Rheo-HPDC parts (Fig. 17d), which show the characteristic of ductile fracture. Thus the Rheo-HPDC parts have high
mechanical properties. After solution treatment at 420 C for 12 h,
the failure surface is characterized by a few river patterns and many
clear tear ridges (Fig. 17e). When the fracture surface is observed
at a large magnication, some ruptured eutectics, secondary cracks
and numerous coarse dimples are observed around the river patterns (Fig. 17f), indicating local ductile fracture. This indicates that
the fracture mode of the parts treated by T4 is a mix of quasicleavage and local ductile fracture, explaining their high elongation
of 11.3%. Fig. 17g and h shows the fracture surfaces of the T6 treated
parts. All areas indicate the typical cleavage characteristic. Many

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M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

Fig. 17. SEM fractographs of the AZ91D Mg-alloy tensile parts: (a) low magnication, HPDC; (b) high magnication, HPDC; (c) low magnication, FCS Rheo-HPDC; (d) high
magnication, FCS Rheo-HPDC; (e) low magnication, FCS Rheo-HPDC + T4 treatment; (f) high magnication, FCS Rheo-HPDC + T4 treatment; (g) low magnication, FCS
Rheo-HPDC + T6 treatment and (h) high magnication, FCS Rheo-HPDC + T6 treatment.

small candy-like cleavage facets with random orientation are found


in the failure surfaces, which result in a decrease in ductility.

5. Discussion
5.1. Microstructure formation mechanism of FCS process
The melt experiences strong convection in the FCS device during slurry preparation (Zhou et al., 2014a,b), and the FCS action
greatly changes the heat and mass transfer process of the melt. It is

believed that the formation of grains in the FCS process is attributed


to heterogeneous nucleation due to low undercooling. When the
melt enters the FCS device, the strong convection rapidly creates
relatively uniform temperature and composition elds as seen in
Fig. 4 and 5, which can effectively suppress macrosegregation (Fig. 7
and Table 4) as reported by Wu et al. (2012). Under the cooling of
the barrel and helicoid blade, the melt rapidly cools to the liquidus.
According to the big bang nucleation theory (Chalmers, 1964),
numerous effective nucleation sites which are potential nuclei are
generated in the melt. Ohno (1987) reported that the necking-shape

M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

365

Fig. 18. Schematic diagrams of traditional crystal dissociating (a) and crystal dissociating in the FCS device (b).

5.2. Solidication of FCS rheo-HPDC process


Fig. 19 shows the solidication process of the melt in FCS RheoHPDC and HPDC techniques. It indicates that the solidication of
the melt in Rheo-HPDC process experiences two stages. The former mainly occurs in slurry preparation, including rapid cooling,
isothermal stirring and quick transfer. The latter mainly occurs
when the slurry enters the shot chamber and mold cavity during
lling. As mentioned above, Rheo-HPDC is greatly different from
HPDC.
Firstly, take the slurry preparation of A380 alloy as example,
numerous grains inhibit growth each other during the solidication, which results in the renement of primary particles (Fig. 13).
It is well known that primary particles have an impact on the
eutectic silicon morphology. Guo et al. (2009b) reported that the
spherical primary particles divide the remaining liquid into many
small pockets, and the eutectic reaction is limited to some small
intergranular areas. This affects the nucleation of the silicon phase
by changing the constitutional supercooling in front of the growing eutectic grains, leading to the near-isotropic growth of silicon
particles (Fig. 14).

Semisolid slurry
preparation

Die-casting

Isothermal
stirring
Rapid
cooling

Temperature

grains generate on the mold wall and leave it into the melt inside
when the strong convection occurs at the early stage of solidication (Fig. 18a). Based on the crystal dissociating theory, due to the
strong convection and lower melt temperature in the FCS process,
the nucleation on the barrel wall, helicoid blade and stirring rod
and the disengagement of nuclei also play a key role in increasing
the nucleation rate (Fig. 18b).
After the formation of nuclei, the grain growth stage begins
promptly. Under the isotropic environment caused by the strong
convection, the constitutional supercooling near the solid-liquid
interface is greatly reduced or eliminated, which favors the spherical growth of nuclei.
Based on the M-S unsteady theory by Minkoff (1986), the nuclei
initially grow in a spherical shape and then the growth morphology turns into dendritic as the grain reaches a certain size. Part
of the nuclei distributed on the barrel wall and screw blade grow
into dendrites in the undercooling melt, which are highly sheared
by the blade, resulting in the dendrites shattering and dissociating
into the melt (Fig. 18). Due to uniform composition and temperature elds, the preferred growth does not occur to dissociative
dendrites. Yang et al. (2010) demonstrated that the surface energy
has an effect on dissociative dendrites and urges them to grow in
the direction of shrinking surface area. Guo et al. (2009a) reported
that grains self-rotate as they grow under convection, and make the
temperature and composition distributions more uniform, which
helps the spheroidization of the grains. All of the above comprise
the main mechanism for the growth and globularization of primary
particles.

Cooling

Liquidus

Slurry
transfer

Solidus

Cooling in Filling
shot sleeve
Cooling in
die cavity
FCS Rheo-HPDC
HPDC

Time
Fig. 19. The solidication process of the melt in HPDC and FCS Rheo-HPDC techniques.

Secondly, regarding the HPDC process, the solidied dendritic


grains have only 13 s before the melt is shot and thus there is
little time for homogenization. In contrast, the semisolid slurry is
treated by FCS device for generally 1525 s before being fed into
the shot chamber, providing more time for homogenization. This
proves that the non-equilibrium nature of solidication in HPDC
parts is more remarkable (Fig. 15). Esmaily et al. (2014) pointed
out that the primary solidication under strong stirring is closer
to equilibrium than the secondary solidication that occurs in the
mold cavity which is highly non-equilibrium, occurring at a much
higher cooling rate. This explains why the Al gradients are steeper
in 2 -Mg than in 1 -Mg (Fig. 15).

5.3. Mechanical properties


The enhanced mechanical properties, listed in Table 5, show
the effectiveness of the FCS Rheo-HPDC. Such improvement can
be attributed to two main reasons. One is the renement of the
-Al/-Mg (Table 5). According to Lin et al. (2013), ne spherical
primary particles are good for rheocasting parts to obtain improved
mechanical properties. According to Zhang et al. (2009) and L
et al. (2013), the renement of 2 -Al/2 -Mg within the eutectic
structure has been identied as a key factor determining the proof
strength of Al/Mg-alloys. The ne-grained structure contributes to
an increase of the YS due to the Hall-Petch effect (Kubota et al.,

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M. Qi et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 234 (2016) 353367

1999). Generally, the YS as a function of grain size can be represented by the Hall-Petch equation.
 = 0 + Kd1/2

(7)

where  is the yield stress,  0 is the yield stress of a single crystal,


K is a constant and d is the grain size. The grain size of Al/Mg-alloys
was well rened by FCS, leading to an increase of the mechanical
properties due to the Hall-Petch equation. The other reason is less
shrinkage porosity and entrapped air (Table 5). Porosity is a negative structural factor to any casting and FCS Rheo-HPDC parts with
porosity levels between 0.3 and 0.5% are far lower than other processes. In the FCS process, the melt is steadily stirred in the sealed
barrel, and the prepared slurry directly ows into the shot chamber
to reduce contact with air. Zhou et al. (2014a,b) reported that the
slurry shows distinctive pseudoplasticity and thixotropy, greatly
reducing air entrapment during lling due to a higher viscosity
in contrast with the melt. The Rheo-HPDC process also results in
the lower solidication contraction due to a lower forming temperature. It can decrease shrinkage defects especially for thin-wall
parts.
Owing to the very low porosity level in FCS Rheo-HPDC parts,
heat treatments can be used to further improve mechanical properties. For AZ91D alloy, the hard brittle Mg17 Al12 is harmful to
ductility. T4 treatment eliminates the net-like phase (Fig. 16a),
which increases the ductility of AZ91D parts (Nemcov et al., 2009).
Ageing treatment increases tensile strength but decreases ductility
of AZ91D parts (Table 5). It is mainly because the formation of
precipitates on ageing accelerates cross-slip and generates dislocation tangles that harden the matrix, improving the work-hardening
rate of aged AZ91D as proposed by Clark (1968). The precipitates
can obstruct the dislocation motions (Cceres et al., 2002) and as a
result, the ductility of the alloy decreases.
6. Conclusions
(1) A simplied process, namely forced convection stirring (FCS),
was developed for the preparation of semisolid slurries. The FCS
process can prepare slurries in which primary particles are ne,
spherical and uniformly dispersed in the liquid matrix.
(2) The strong convection rapidly promotes the uniformity of the
temperature and composition of the melt, which destroys the
formation environment of dendrites and improves primary particles in the quantity and morphology.
(3) A simple Rheo-HPDC process is developed by combining the
FCS device with a HPDC machine. The microstructures of FCS
Rheo-HPDC parts at different regions are all composed of ne
spherical particles and low porosity levels (0.3-0.5%). For the
control arms of A356 alloy, the total pore areas of the FCS RheoHPDC parts are decreased by 3 times in comparison to that of
the HPDC parts.
(4) FCS Rheo-HPDC parts show improved mechanical properties to
those formed by HPDC and other Rheo-HPDC techniques, and
the increasing rates of UTS, YS and elongation are over 10% in
comparison to HPDC.
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful for the supports of Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology (2013B091300016). The
authors would also like to thank Beijing General Research Institute
for Nonferrous Metals for offering software support of Flow-3D.
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