Dilatometer study of rapidly solidified aluminium-silicon based alloys

Abstract

Aluminum-Silicon alloys are sought in a large number of automotive and aerospace applications due to their low coefficient of thermal expansion and high wear resistance. The present study focused on structural transformations as a function of the temperature of rapidly solidified hypereutectic Al 100-xSix (x = 12, 22 and 40) alloys. Different structures out of equilibrium have been obtained after casting in sand, graphite and copper moulds and by melt spinning. The retained Si content in supersaturated alpha Al and the precipitation of Si is discussed in the light of the dilatometer studies [1, 2, 3] complemented by metallographic microscopy, XRD and DSC [4] measurements. A Kissinger analysis was used to determine the activation energy for the precipitation of supersaturated Si content. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.