Effect of vanadium addition at a rate of 0.1% on the mechanical characteristics, microstructure, and microhardness of Al-Cu casted alloys

Abstract

Due to essential need of Al-Cu alloys in different applications such as aerospace and automotive industries, and the mechanical characteristics of Al-Cu alloys being weak; the effect of vanadium addition at a rate of 0.1% on the mechanical behavior, microhardness, and microstructure have been investigated. The effect of upsetting process -cold work- on the microstructure, microhardness has been also investigated. Three set of alloys namely; Al, Al-9%Cu, and Al-9%Cu-0.1%V were prepared. The specimens for microstructure, microhardness and compression tests were machined. The mechanical tests were performed to investigate the effect of vanadium addition and the effect of upsetting process. It was found that the 0.1% vanadium addition resulted in grain refinement of Al-9% Cu alloys of about 32.3 %, furthermore, and extra refining resulted after upsetting process by 44.2 %. On the other hand, the microhardness of Al-9%Cu enhanced by 54.1 %, and the valuable result was a 422.8 % enhancement in the microhardness of Al-9%Cu-0.1%V alloy after upsetting process compared to pure Al.