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Article history: In this investigation, in order to evaluate the influence of microstructures on the microhard-
Received 16 January 2019 ness of an aluminum-based multicomponent alloy, samples of the horizontally solidified
Accepted 28 June 2019 Al-7 wt.%Si-3 wt.%Cu alloy were subjected to the T6 heat treatment. Microhardness (HV)
Available online xxx measurements were carried out in specific zones, like in the center of the dendrites (␣/Al-
rich) and interdendritic regions. As expected, in as-cast samples, it has been observed high
Keywords: HV values in the interdendritic regions, due to the presence of the harder phases in the
Unsteady-state horizontal eutectic mixture (Si particles + Al2 Cu () + Fe intermetallic phases). As a highlight, harden-
solidification ing has been observed in both analyzed regions (␣/Al-rich and interdendritic), and a similar
T6-heat treatment behavior in the HV evolution, between the two investigated regions, has also been evidenced.
Microstructural evolution In addition, mathematical equations have characterized the HV dependence as a function
Microhardness of the aging time (taging ).
AlSiCu alloys © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the
CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Please cite this article in press as: Souza FA, et al. Investigation on microstructural and microhardness evolution in as-cast and T6/heat-treated
samples of a horizontally solidified AlSiCu alloy. J Mater Res Technol. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2019.06.054
JMRTEC-772; No. of Pages 7
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Fig. 1 – Schematic representation of the as-cast ingot and samples submitted to the T6 heat treatment.
automotive industries [12–15]. They are also the most impor- of intermetallic phases on mechanical properties during the
tant casting alloys because combine the benefits of silicon solidification path of AlSiCu alloys.
with those of heat treatment alloys. In general, these alloys It is well known that in casting Al-Si alloys the presence of
are found in the following systems: Al–Si–Mg, Al–Si–Cu or iron as an impurity is unavoidable and, due to its extremely
Al–Si–Cu–Mg. In Al–Si–Cu alloys, the Si and Cu contents range low solubility in aluminum, Fe forms intermetallic compounds
from 5 to 22 wt% and 0 wt% to 4.5 wt%, respectively. Most of during the solidification of these alloys [1–4,11–13,17]. Gener-
these alloys have nominal magnesium contents, ranging from ally in Al-Si alloy, Fe-rich phases can be grouped into three
0.3 to 0.6 wt% [7–13,19]. kinds of morphologies: polyhedral or star-like, Chinese script
The effects of the conditions of the solidification and and platelet [10,11], and the most observed among them is
heat treatment processes and their interrelationships on -Al5 SiFe with platelet-like morphology [11].
the microstructure and mechanical properties of aluminum- It is important to emphasize that there are still doubts in
based ternary alloys have been recently investigated by Costa the literature about the influence of the solution treatment
et al. [2] and Magno et al. [3,17] for AlSiCu alloys, Chen et al. on the as-cast microstructures, especially on the dendritic
[13], Sekar et al. [14] and Pramoda et al. [15] for AlSiMg spacings. It is very well known that the Al-rich as-cast pri-
alloys, respectively. Costa et al. [2], Magno et al. [3] and mary phase (matrix), generally dendritic, hardens after the
Chen et al. [13], have reported in their investigations on the T6 heat treatment. On the other hand, there are no studies
favorable influence of 2 high and low TR and 2 values, in the literature regarding the effects of the phases that do
respectively, on the T6 heat treatment, especially in the step not dissolve on the mechanical properties within the inter-
of the solution treatment. Sekar et al. [14] have elaborated dendritic regions, as well as the effects of the microstructural
studies on the influence of as-cast (gravity casting, vacuum solidification parameters (as 2 ) on the size, morphology and
casting and squeeze casting methods) and T6 heat treatment distribution of Si, Al2 Cu and Fe particles after T6 treatment.
conditions on mechanical properties (hardness, bending and In this sense, the present contribution aims to investigate
double shear) and the results found for all casting methods experimentally the effects of solidification and precipita-
showed that hardness and bending strength increased after tion hardening processes parameters on the microstructure,
heat treatment; on the other hand, the double shear strength intermetallic phases and microhardness in both matrix and
of all these three castings decreased after the assumed heat interdendritic regions. Mathematical expressions have been
treatment. However, these investigations did not explore the proposed to predict the HV evolution with the aging time
operational processing effects in specific regions of the as- (taging ) in both the matrix and the interdendritic regions.
cast and heat treated microstructures, such as the hardening
evolution in the aluminum-rich primary phase and the inter-
dendritic regions. 2. Experimental procedure
Notably, the literature [1–4,10–13,16,17] is unanimous
about the strong influence of the solidification thermal and Experiments on the investigated alloy, involving the prepara-
microstructural parameters on the mechanical properties of tion, quantitative and qualitative chemical analysis, transient
metals and their alloys. Study of solidification conditions on horizontal solidification and the obtained thermal date, the
the morphology of the intermetallic phases in aluminum resulting ingot as well as its characterizations in macrostruc-
alloys have been elaborated in the last two decades. Samuel tural and microstructural scales, are detailed in our recent
et al. [7], Djurdjevic et al. [8] and Li et al. [9] have reported publication [10]. The solidification set-up was designed in such
that cast AlSiCu alloys the Al2 Cu intermetallic phase can be a way that heat was extracted only through the water-cooled
seen in the block and eutectic morphologies or as a mixture mould, promoting horizontal directional solidification.
of both types. According to the authors, higher cooling rates Samples with the dimensions of 10 × 10 × 60 mm were
favor the formation of eutectic type, and the block phase is selected from the horizontally solidified ingot and submitted
more difficult to dissolve during the solution heat treatment. to the T6 heat treatment. The maximum length of 60 mm was
However, there is still a large gap in the literature that needs defined as a function of the variation of the cooling rate (TR )
to be explored on the effects of the size and morphology along the length of the ingot. It is emphasized that the TR
Please cite this article in press as: Souza FA, et al. Investigation on microstructural and microhardness evolution in as-cast and T6/heat-treated
samples of a horizontally solidified AlSiCu alloy. J Mater Res Technol. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2019.06.054
JMRTEC-772; No. of Pages 7
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Fig. 2 – (a) and (b) TR and 2 variation as a function of the position in the solidified ingot and (c) microstructural evolution
with the TR variation.
values range from 21 ◦ C/s to 0.53 ◦ C/s along the length of the and within the interdendritic regions. 2 and HV measure-
ingot, from the cooled base to the position in as-cast ingot ments were carried out at the following positions of the as-cast
equal to 60 mm. Obviously, a high range of TR values allows a and heat-treated samples 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 mm from the
large variation of the as-cast microstructure, since the cooling cooled mold. The methodology used for the 2 and HV mea-
rate exerts a strong influence on dendritic spacing. surement has been detailed in our recently published work
Fig. 1 shows the drawing scheme of samples that were [1]. The HV measurements followed the ASTM E384 standard
selected from the as-cast horizontal ingot and submitted to and were conducted using a test load of 50 g and a dwell time
the T6 heat treatment, followed recommendations of ASTM of 10 s. A Shimadzu HMV model was used and the adopted
B-597 standards, that is: solution treating performed dur- Vickers microhardness has been the average of at least 20
ing 3 h at 495 ± 2 ◦ C, followed by quenching in warm water measurements on each as-cast and heat treated samples. In
(70 ± 2 ◦ C), aging for 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 16 and 24 h at 155 ± 2 ◦ C and addition, the scanning electron microscope (SEM TESCAM,
air cooling. Immediately after the heat treatment, both sam- VEGA LMU) coupled to an energy dispersion spectrum (EDS X-
ples were subjected to microstructural characterization. The MAX 20, Oxford) was used to investigate the morphology and
microstructural parameter analyzed was the secondary den- distribution of the phases in both as-cast and heat treatment
drite arm spacing (2 ). More details on the T6 heat treatment samples.
have been reported in the references [1,17].
In order to evaluate the effect of the precipitation harden-
3. Results and discussion
ing treatment on the as-cast samples, microhardness test was
performed on both as-cast and heat treated samples. The HV
As mentioned, the thermal data resulting from the horizontal
measurements were obtained at the center of the dendrites
solidification can be observed in our article [10]. From these
Please cite this article in press as: Souza FA, et al. Investigation on microstructural and microhardness evolution in as-cast and T6/heat-treated
samples of a horizontally solidified AlSiCu alloy. J Mater Res Technol. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2019.06.054
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Fig. 3 – HV variation with the position in the as-cast ingot and secondary dendrite arm spacing: (a) matrix versus
interdendritic region and (b) interdendritic region.
Fig. 4 – SEM microstructures for two positions in the ingot from the cooled base, obtained by: (a) P = 5 mm and (b) P = 70 mm,
both by BSSs with mapping and microanalysis by EDS.
data, the cooling rates (TR ) have been determined experimen- Fig. 3 shows the results of HV measurements in the regions
tally along the length of the as-cast ingot, as shown in Fig. 2a. of the as-cast samples established for studies, that is, it
Fig. 2b presents 2 dependence as a function of TR . Fig. 2c has been carried out on the center at the dendrites (␣/Al-
depicts for three positions in the as-solidified ingot the behav- rich phase) and within the interdendritic regions. Obviously,
ior of dendritic microstructure evolution. higher HV values have been observed within the interdendritic
Experimental mathematical expressions given by regions due to the presence of harder phases that constitute
TR = 123(P)−1.25 and 2 = 50.6(TR )−1/3 have characterized the eutectic mixture (Si particles + Al2 Cu and Fe intermetal-
the TR and 2 variation as a function of ingot and cooling rate, lic compounds). An average HV value equal to 60 kg/mm2 has
(Fig. 2a and b, respectively). It is observed that the cooling been obtained on the region of the Al-rich phase (Matrix) to the
water exerts a strong influence on the TR and 2 values, length of the as-solidified ingot; on the other hand, within the
since higher and lower TR and 2 values, respectively, finer interdendritic regions (IR), a progressive increase of HV values
microstructures are achieved at positions in ingot close to the has been observed, as can be seen in Fig. 3a and b represents
cooled base. the HV behavior with the variation of 2 in IR. It can be seen
Please cite this article in press as: Souza FA, et al. Investigation on microstructural and microhardness evolution in as-cast and T6/heat-treated
samples of a horizontally solidified AlSiCu alloy. J Mater Res Technol. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2019.06.054
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Fig. 5 – (a) and (b) represent the HV evolution with the aging time for each investigated position; (c) Average HV values of
each position with a function of aging time; and (d) punctual microanalysis and mapping by EDS at position 60 mm.
that the Hall–Petch expression given by HV = 106–163(2 )−0.5 Fig. 4 shows longitudinal SEM micrographs obtained for
characterizes the HV dependence as a function of 2 . This is two positions in the as-solidified ingot (5 and 70 mm from
due to the harder particles located within the interdendritic the cooled interface). The SEM images of Fig. 4a and b have
regions that increase in size with the increase of 2 , specifi- been obtained by means of secondary electrons (SE) and scat-
cally the Si particles that present with coarser and elongated tered retro electrons (BSSs), respectively. The images by BSSs
lamellar morphologies. are extremely useful when it is desired to observe impurities
Please cite this article in press as: Souza FA, et al. Investigation on microstructural and microhardness evolution in as-cast and T6/heat-treated
samples of a horizontally solidified AlSiCu alloy. J Mater Res Technol. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2019.06.054
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[2] Al3Cu5.5Si Upward 5 and 8 h at 490 ± 2 ◦ C 3 h at 155 ± 2 ◦ C 76 kg/mm2 87 kg/mm2 for 5 h of solution
[17] Horizontal 5 and 8 h at 490 ± 2 ◦ C 3 h at 155 ± 2 ◦ C 62 kg/mm2 80 kg/mm2 for 5 h of solution
This work Al3Cu7Si Horizontal 3 h at 495 ± 2 ◦ C 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 16 and 72 kg/mm2 84.5 kg/mm2 for 3 h of aging
24 h at 155 ± 2 ◦ C
Please cite this article in press as: Souza FA, et al. Investigation on microstructural and microhardness evolution in as-cast and T6/heat-treated
samples of a horizontally solidified AlSiCu alloy. J Mater Res Technol. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2019.06.054
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Please cite this article in press as: Souza FA, et al. Investigation on microstructural and microhardness evolution in as-cast and T6/heat-treated
samples of a horizontally solidified AlSiCu alloy. J Mater Res Technol. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2019.06.054