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Procedia
Engineering
Procedia Engineering
Procedia 00 (2011)
Engineering 000–000
27 (2012) 1129 – 1134
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

2011 Chinese Materials Conference

Effect of electromagnetic stirring on microstructure and

properties of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy
Yanyan Du*, Yiping Lu, Tongmin Wang, Tingju Li, Guoliang Zhang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116085, China

Abstract

The Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi high-entropy alloy was synthesized by the medium frequency induction melting furnace. The
effect of electromagnetic stirring on the microstructure and mechanical property of the alloy was investigated. The
results showed that the electromagnetic stirring was effective to refine the grains for Al 0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy. And the
alloy exhibited excellent mechanical properties. The as-cast rod sample did not fracture even at a compressive
engineering strain of above 50%. Besides, the compressive strength and the tensile strength of the alloy with
electromagnetic stirring during solidification were higher than that without electromagnetic stirring. Due to the
existence of microcracks, the tensile engineering strain of the alloy reduced a little with electromagnetic stirring, but
was still higher than 25%.

© 2011
© 2011 Published
Published by
by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review 
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under responsibility
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Chinese Materials
Materials
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Research Society Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Keywords: high-entropy alloy; microstructure; mechanical property; electromagnetic stirring

1. Introduction

Recently, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) which are best characterized by their inherent high mixing
entropies have been studied. In comparison with the general strategy for designing alloys based on one or
two principal elements, a HEA alloy contains at least five major metal elements in equimolar ratio or non-
equimolar ratio whose concentration for each one ranges between 5 at% and 35 at%. Up to present, much
work has been done for HEAs. After a period of research on HEAs, it was discovered that these alloys
were mainly composed of simple FCC and/or BCC solid solutions, in stead of complex structures
consisting of many intermetallic compounds. In addition, a vast number of HEAs with different
compositions have shown the potential to many applications which require high strength, thermal stability

*
Corresponding author. Tel: +86-15042400492.
Email address:duyanyan0423@126.com

1877-7058 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review  under responsibility of Chinese Materials Research Society
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2011.12.562
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as well as wear and oxidation resistance, such as tools, molds and furnace parts. [1-9] Among numerous
alloys previously investigated, the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy has great potential for structural applications,
which forms a single FCC solid solution and presents enhanced plasticity and a large strain-hardening
capacity. In particular, the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy with a low hardness of only HV 223 shows an
excellent wear resistance close to that of SKD 61 steel with a hardness of 567 HV. It may be attributed to
that the alloy displays a high work hardening capability. [9]
So far, electromagnetic stirring (EMS) has been applied to the production of many alloys such as
aluminum alloys[10], magnesium alloys[11] and steel alloys[12]. EMS can not only enhance the movement of
metallic melt but also improve mass and heat transfer in metallic melt during solidification by the way of
electromagnetic force. When the EMS was applied to alloys during solidification, the microstructure
would be refined and the distribution of compositions could also be homogenized. For a further
understanding of the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy and to facilitate the alloy design, the electromagnetic stirring
was first applied to the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi high-entropy alloy during solidification in this paper. The
Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy was prepared by a medium frequency induction melting furnace. And the
influence of electromagnetic stirring on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the alloy was
investigated in the present study in order to further improve its mechanical performance.

2. Experimental Procedure

The purity of raw materials used in this study is shown in Table 1. Elements Al, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe and Ni
were melted by the medium frequency induction melting furnace under low vacuum condition. And the
liquid metal was poured into a water-cooled stainless steel mould to obtain a cylindrical ingot with the
diameter 80 mm. The samples taken from the ingot were polished for the examination with X-ray
fluorescence spectrometer. The morphology of the as-cast Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy was observed with an
optical microscope (MEF-3) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM, JSM-6360LV). And the
crystalline structures of as-cast samples were characterized by the X-Ray diffractometer (XRD, Shimadzu
XRD-6000). For compressive test, specimens of diameter 5mm and length 10mm were prepared. And
specimens for tensile test were designed according to Chinese national standards. The compressive and
tensile tests at room temperature were carried out using a electromechanical tension testing system. The
fracture surfaces of the alloy were observed using the JSM-6360LV scanning electron microscope.

Table 1. Raw materials and their purity (mass fraction)

Component Al Co Cr Cu Fe Ni
Purity (%) 99.7 99.95 99.28 99.9 99.5 99.98

Table 2. Composition analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (mass fraction)

Al Co Cr Cu Fe Ni
Nominal 4.4596 19.4812 17.1880 21.0060 18.4610 19.4041
Without EMS 4.2354 19.2502 17.1534 23.3365 18.2388 17.7857
Actual
With EMS 4.8962 19.0386 16.2475 23.8725 18.2145 17.7343

3. Results and Discussions

3.1. Microstructures of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy

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Table 2 shows the results of the test with X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. It can be seen that the
actual chemical compositions are rather close to the design compositions.
The as-cast microstructures of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy with and without EMS are shown in Fig.1. It is
clear that the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy is a typical cast dendrite and interdendrite structure. And the
solidification structures with EMS are more refined than that without EMS. Consequently, the stirring
current 120A is feasible and effective to refine grains for Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy.

(a) (b)

Fig.1. As-cast microstructures of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy: (a) without EMS; (b) with EMS

The grain size can be indicated by the number of the grains per unit volume (Z) which depends on the
nucleation rate (N) and the grain growth rate (G): Z  0.9( N / G)3/4 . While the electromagnetic stirring
works on the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy melt, the critical nucleation energy decreases. And it enhances the
structural fluctuation and energetic fluctuation in Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy melt. As a result, the nucleation
rate (N) increases and the grain refinement is achieved. Moreover, the Al 0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy melt is
compelled to flow by the Lorentz force. On the one hand, the concentration field and the temperature field
in Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy melt become uniform because of the forced flow. The uniformity of
concentration field enlarges the effective distribution coefficient of solute and then brings down the
constitutional supercooling at the solidification front, which restrains the growth of dendrites. And the
uniformity of temperature field decreases the temperature gradient at the solidification front which also
inhibits dendrite growth. As a consequence, the grains are refined. On the other hand, the
Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy melt scours the mould to bring numerous free crystal nucleus to the centre of
mould as new crystal nucleus during solidification, which results in the grain refinement.

3.2. XRD pattern of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy

The X-ray diffraction pattern of the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy is shown in Fig.2. It can be clearly seen
that the as-cast Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy presented a simple single FCC solid-solution crystal structure
whether or not the electromagnetic stirring was applied. The diffraction peaks’ intensity changed, but
there were no new phases generating with EMS during solidification.

3.3. Compressive and tensile properties

As can be seen from Fig.3(a), The Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy exhibited excellent plasticity. The as-cast
rod sample did not fracture even at a compressive engineering strain of greater than 50%, and the sample
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showed barrel-shaped form after deformation. Fig.3(b) is the comparison of compressive properties of
Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy with and without EMS during solidification. It is quite clear that the compressive
strength of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy is enhanced with EMS, which is mainly because of the grain
refinement caused by EMS.

3500 ★ (111)
★ FCC
3000
Intensity(Counts)

2500
(200)
★
2000
(220) (311)
★
1500 ★
without EMS
1000
(222)
★
500
with EMS
0

20 40 60 80 100
2degree
Fig.2. XRD pattern of the as-cast Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy
6000 1400

5000 1200 with EMS

Engineering Stress (MPa)

Engineering Stress (MPa)

without EMS
1000
4000 without EMS

800
3000
600
2000
400

1000
(a) 200
(b)
0 0
20 40 60 80 100 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Engineering Strain (%) Engineering Strain (%)

Fig.3. Compressive stress-strain curves of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy: (a) without EMS; (b) with EMS

Fig.4 shows the tensile stress-strain curves of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy. Like the tensile curves of high
manganese steel, The Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy’s tensile curves just include the elastic deformation and the
plastic deformation, and then the sample fractures. It means that the Al 0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy has not only
excellent ductility but also the large potential for deformation strengthening. The tensile strength of
Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy with EMS was 693.66MPa, which was higher than that without EMS. The
electromagnetic stirring obviously boosts the tensile strength of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy. However, the
fracture of designed tensile sample has been observed at a tensile engineering strain of about 25% which
was lower than that without EMS (that is above 30%).
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700 700 693.66MPa ☆

(a) 616.76MPa ☆ (b)
Engineering Stress (MPa)

Engineering Stress (MPa)

600 600

500 500

400 400
without EMS with EMS
300 300

200 200

100 100

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 20 25
Engineering Strain (%) Engineering Strain (%)

Fig.4. Tensile stress-strain curves of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy: (a) without EMS; (b) with EMS

a-1 a-2

b-1 b-2

Fig.5. SEM images of fracture surfaces of the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy: (a) without EMS; (b) with EMS

The tensile fracture surfaces of the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy are shown in Fig.5. It can be clearly
observed that numerous dimples are on the fracture surface which exhibits typical ductile dimple fracture
pattern. From the low magnification fractograph shown in Fig. 5(b), it is found that there are a great many
microcracks on the fracture surface of the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy with EMS, while no microcracks has
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been found as to the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy without EMS. That is considered as one reason for lowering
the ductility of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy with EMS during solidification.

4. Conclusions

1. The Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy exhibits a simple microstructure of FCC solid solution whether or not
applying EMS during solidification. And the electromagnetic stirring is effective to refine grains for
Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy which shows a typical cast dendrite and interdendrite structure.
2. The Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy has the excellent compressive and tensile properties. The EMS can
effectively enhance the alloy’s compressive and tensile strength. The rod sample for compressive
test does not fracture even when the compressive engineering strain is above 50%. The tensile
strength of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy with EMS is 693.66MPa, while that is 616.76MPa without EMS.
3. The Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi alloy has not only excellent ductility but also the large potential for
deformation strengthening. The tensile engineering strain of the alloy slightly reduced by
electromagnetic stirring，which may be considered to be the existence of microcracks in specimens
for tensile test with EMS.
4. It is feasible to gain a large ingot of this alloy for practical applications.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the ―National Natural Science Foundation of China‖ (No. 51104029).

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