IJIRST –International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology| Volume 3 | Issue 11 | April 2017

ISSN (online): 2349-6010

Effect of Mg Addition on the Microstructure,

Secondary Dendritic Arm Spacing & Hardness of
A356 Al Alloy
Dr. Cherian Paul Joel George Thomas
Assistant Professor UG Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
Saintgits College of Engineering, Kottayam-686532, Kerala, Saintgits College of Engineering, Kottayam-686532, Kerala,
India India

Arun U Justin Joseph George

UG Student UG Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
Saintgits College of Engineering, Kottayam-686532, Kerala, Saintgits College of Engineering, Kottayam-686532, Kerala,
India India

Anandhu A S
UG Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Saintgits College of Engineering, Kottayam-686532, Kerala, India

Abstract
An investigation was carried out to understand the effect of Mg addition on the dendritic arm spacing and hardness of A356
aluminium alloy. The effect of Mg content was assessed by melting the A356 Al alloy in a muffle furnace with the addition of
varying weight percentage Mg (1, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 % wt) and casting in both permanent metal die and sand mould. It was observed
that the secondary dendritic arm spacing reduces with Mg content concluding that Mg addition improves the formation of
nucleation sites and thereby results in grain refinement. The Brinell hardness tester was used to measure the hardness of the
alloy. It was found that the hardness increased with Mg content and comparatively, die cast samples showed improved hardness
when compared with that of sand cast samples.
Keywords: Al-Mg Alloys, Dendrites, Hardness, Microstructure, SDAS
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

I. INTRODUCTION

Cast A356 Aluminium Alloy is taken into consideration owing its application in vehicle structures as they offer attractive
combinations of excellent castability and good weldability, pressure tightness, and good resistance to corrosion. It can be used
for aircraft pump parts, automotive transmission cases, aircraft fittings and control parts, water cooled cylinder blocks, aircraft
structures and engine controls, nuclear energy installations, and other applications where high strength permanent mould or
investment castings are required. However, in severe service circumstances like those in mining and rolling sectors, the low
hardness and poor wear resistance limit its further industrial applications.
An investigation was carried out to assess the effect of magnesium addition on the properties of A356 Al alloy and to optimize
the melting parameters of the process. Further property evaluation including microstructure, secondary dendritic arm spacing,
hardness test, density test, tensile test, wear test, corrosion test, spectroscopy, SEM and EDAX were carried out on cast A356
alloy with varying Mg weight percentage.
The addition of magnesium allows the castings to be heat treated whereby magnesium silicide precipitates are formed which
harden the alloy and impart specific combinations of strength and ductility. The iron, present as an impurity, solidifies into a
number of brittle phases from the eutectic liquid. The composition and structure of these phases is affected by the solidification
rate of the casting and the alloy chemistry. The coefficient of thermal expansion and its electrical resistivity increases a little. Al-
Mg alloys have high strength, good ductility and excellent corrosion resistance. Al-Mg alloys respond well on heat treatment and
a higher ultimate tensile strength and yield strength is achieved. The purpose of magnesium in A356 Al alloy is to precipitate
Mg2Si particles but a disadvantage is that big intermetallic compounds can appear; those phases reduce the ductility. In alloys
that have an amount of magnesium between 0.05 % to 0.3 % seems to decrease the amount of porosity.

All rights reserved by www.ijirst.org 322

 Effect of Mg Addition on the Microstructure, Secondary Dendritic Arm Spacing & Hardness of A356 Al Alloy
(IJIRST/ Volume 3 / Issue 11/ 057)

II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS

Materials Used
Short descriptions of the materials used for conducting the experiments are given below: -
A356 Aluminium Alloy
A356 Al alloy is used to make the melt. The melting temperature of pure Al is 660.3 oC and that of A356 Al alloy is 625oC. The
composition of the alloy used is given below in table 3.1. The following composition is obtained as a result of spectroscopy.
Table – 1
Composition of A356
Element Weight Percentage Element Weight Percentage
Mg ≈ 0.3% Ti ≈ 0.25%
Si ≈ 7% Mn ≈ 0.35%
Fe ≈ 0.6% Other ≈ 0.15%
Cu ≈ 0.25% Al Balance
Zn ≈ 0.35%

Fig. 1: A356 Al alloy

Magnesium
Mg is added to the above composition with varying weight percentages 1, 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5. The melting temperature of Mg is
650oC

Fig. 2. Magnesium
Experimental Procedure
The crucible is pre-heated in the muffle furnace to 650oC. Both the dies, tongs, A356 and Mg are pre-heated in the hot air oven
upto 100oC. According to the charge calculation, the first weight percentage of A356 is loaded into the crucible and heated upto
750oC in the muffle furnace and the temperature is maintained constant for 20 minutes for the A356 to melt. Mg is added to the
melted A356 according to the charge calculation for the varying weight percentages. Al-Mg is again heated in the furnace to
750oC. Graphite powder is applied inside the metal die for easy removal of the casted alloy. The melted alloy is then casted in
the metal die and sand die. The developed alloy is then tested for microstructure, secondary dendritic arm spacing and hardness.

All rights reserved by www.ijirst.org 323

 Effect of Mg Addition on the Microstructure, Secondary Dendritic Arm Spacing & Hardness of A356 Al Alloy
(IJIRST/ Volume 3 / Issue 11/ 057)

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Microstructural Evaluation

1 Wt% Metal Cast 1 Wt% Sand Cast

Fig. 3. Microstructure of alloy with 1 weight percentage Mg

1.5 Wt% Metal Cast 1.5 Wt% Sand Cast

Fig. 4: Microstructure of alloy with 1.5 weight percentage Mg

2.5 Wt% Metal Cast 2.5 Wt% Sand Cast

Fig. 5: Microstructure of alloy with 2.5 weight percentage Mg

All rights reserved by www.ijirst.org 324

 Effect of Mg Addition on the Microstructure, Secondary Dendritic Arm Spacing & Hardness of A356 Al Alloy
(IJIRST/ Volume 3 / Issue 11/ 057)

3.5 Wt% Metal Cast 3.5 Wt% Sand Cast

Fig. 6: Microstructure of alloy with 3.5 weight percentage Mg

It is observed from the above microstructures that the white portion is the aluminium matrix and the black lines are silicon in the
form of eutectic silicon. The clusters of black lines are intermetallic Mg 2Si and the dark black spots represents the porosity in
casting. Comparing the microstructure of the alloy with 1, 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 weight percentage Mg, it is observed that the grain
size decreases as the weight percentage of Mg increases. It is also observed that intermetallic Mg 2Si formed is more in case of
3.5 weight percentages Mg when compared with 1, 1.5 and 2.5 weight percentage Mg castings.
In all the above cases it is also observed that the sand cast alloy has more porosity than metal cast alloy. The porosity is due to
the casting defect in sand mould. Also the grain size is larger in the case of sand cast as the cooling rate is slower for sand cast
than metal cast.
Secondary Dendritic Arm Structure
Secondary dendritic arm spacing is the distance between successive dendritic arms. It is observed that the SDAS of the metal
casting is less than that of the sand casting. This is due to the cooling rate and the refinement of the grain size. Sand cast has
coarse dendritic arm spacing and metal cast has fine dendritic arm spacing. It is also observed that as the weight percentage
increases the grain size decreases.

Fig. 7: SDAS

Table – 2
SDAS
SDAS
Wt %
Sand Metal
1 135µm 51µm
1.5 86µm 45µm
2.5 65µm 40µm
3.5 58µm 36µm

All rights reserved by www.ijirst.org 325

 Effect of Mg Addition on the Microstructure, Secondary Dendritic Arm Spacing & Hardness of A356 Al Alloy
(IJIRST/ Volume 3 / Issue 11/ 057)

Fig. 8: SDAS vs. Weight Percentage

Hardness
Table – 3
Brinell hardness
Brinell Hardness (HB)
Wt %
Sand Metal
1 83 93
1.5 88 103
2.5 94 124
3.5 100 136
It is observed that the metal casting depicts more hardness than sand casting. It is also evident that as the percentage of Mg
increases the hardness also increases. The hardness of the developed alloy is more than that of A356. The hardness increases due
to the formation of nucleation sites and grain refinement.

Fig. 9: Hardness vs. Weight Percentage

All rights reserved by www.ijirst.org 326

 Effect of Mg Addition on the Microstructure, Secondary Dendritic Arm Spacing & Hardness of A356 Al Alloy
(IJIRST/ Volume 3 / Issue 11/ 057)

IV. CONCLUSION

A356 alloy with varying Mg content was developed and property evaluation was carried out. Alloys cast in metal die showed
refined grain structure when compared with sand cast alloy. Alloys cast in metal die were found to exhibit more hardness than
sand cast alloys. SDAS was found to reduce with the addition of Mg. Hardness was found to increase with Mg content. Thus we
can conclude that as the SDAS decreases the hardness increases. This is due to the formation of nucleation sites and grain
refinement which prevents crack propagation.

REFERENCES
[1] T.Prabhu, E.R.Sivakumar, M.Chandrasekar, “Role of Copper on the Microstructure and Mechanical properties of Forged A356 Aluminum alloy”, 2016.
[2] “Correlation of microstructure with mechanical properties and fracture behavior of A356-T6 aluminum alloy fabricated by expendable pattern shell casting
with vacuum and low-pressure, gravity casting and lost foam casting”, Wenming Jiang, ZitianFan,et..al, Materials Science & Engineering A 560 (2013)
396–403.
[3] “A study of the mechanical properties of an Al–Si–Cu alloy (ADC12) produced by various casting processes”, M.Okayasu, Y.Ohkura,et..al, Materials
Science and Engineering A 543 (2012) 185– 192.
[4] “Effects of T6 heat treatment on the microstructure, tensile properties, and fracture behavior of the modified A356 alloys”, Man Zhu, Zengyun Jian,
Gencang Yang, Yaohe Zhou, Materials and Design, 36 (2012) p.243–249.
[5] “A Review on the Heat Treatment of Al-Si-Cu/Mg Casting Alloys”, A.M.A. Mohamed and F.H. Samuel, 2012.
[6] “Effect of heat treatment on microstructure and tensile properties of A356 alloys”, PENG Ji-hua, TANG Xiao-long, HE Jian-ting1, XU De-ying,
Transactions of Nonferrous materials Society of China, 2011.
[7] “Influence of grain refiner and modifier on the microstructure and mechanical properties of A356 alloy”, D. G. Mallapur et. al. / International Journal of
Engineering Science and Technology, Vol. 2(9), 2010, 4487-4493.
[8] “Effects of eutectic silicon particles on tensile properties and fracture toughness of A356 aluminum alloys fabricated by low-pressure-casting, casting-
forging, and squeeze-casting processes”, Kyuhong Lee, Yong Nam Kwon, Sunghak Lee, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 461 (2008) p.532-541.
[9] “Correlation of microstructure with mechanical properties and fracture toughness of A356 aluminum alloys fabricated by low-pressure-casting, rheo-
casting, and casting-forging processes”, Kyuhong Lee a, Yong Nam Kwon b, Sunghak Lee, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 75 (2008) p.4200-4216.
[10] “Influence of alloying additions on the structure and properties of AI-7Si-O.3Mg alloy”, Sreejakumari.S.S, Cochin University of Science and
Technology,2006.
[11] S. Brown, "Feasibility of Replacing Structural Steel with Aluminum Alloys in the Shipbuilding Industry", University of Wisconsin-Madison, April 29,
1999.
[12] B. Radulović, B. Perović, M. Mišović, "Metalic Materials I", University of Montenegro, (2001) 90.
[13] S.K. Das, H.W. Hayden, G.B. Barthold, “Development of Non-Heat-Treatable Automotive Aluminium Sheet Alloys”, Materials Science Forum-Trans
Tech Publications, Switzerland, 331-337(2000)913.
[14] M. Siegrist, “Aluminum Extrusions for Shipbuilding”, Proceedings of Alumitech 97, Atlanta, 20-23 May, 1997, p.367.
[15] G.M. Raynaud, Ph. Gomiero, “Aluminium Alloys for the Marine Market”, Aluminium and its Alloys, No.79, June (1996) 73.
[16] G.M. Raynaud, Ph. Gomiero, “The Potential of 5383 Alloy in Marine Application”, Proceedings of Alumitech 97, Atlanta, 20-23 May, 1997, p.353.
[17] Haszler, “Latest Aluminium Alloy Developments for Plate Applications in High Speed Ferry and Aircraft Structures”, Conf. Proc. Aluminum 97,
Aluminum Technology and Markets for the New Century, 24-25 Sept. 1997, Messe Essen, Germany, p.2/1-2/9.
[18] M. Skillingberg, “Making aluminum alloy selection easier”, Marine Log, Oct. 2004.
[19] L.F. Mondolfo, “Aluminum Alloys - Structure & Properties”, Butterworths & Co. Ltd., 1979.
[20] M.J. Starink, A.-M. Zahra, “β' and β precipitation in an Al-Mg alloy studied by DSC and TEM”, Acta mater., 46 (1998) p.3381-3396
[21] “Corrosion of Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys”, ed. by J.R.Davis & Associates, ASM Intl., Metals Park OH, USA, 1999.
[22] R.P. Wei, C.M. Liao, M. Gao, Metall. Mat. Trans. A, 29A (1998) p.1153-1160
[23] R. Braun, B. Lenczowski, G. Tempus, Mater. Sci. Forum, vols.331-337 (2000) p.1647-1652

All rights reserved by www.ijirst.org 327