Understanding the refinement of grains in laser surface remelted Al–Cu alloys. (15th March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Patel, M.N.; Qiu, D.; Wang, G.; Gibson, M.A.; Prasad, A.; StJohn, D.H.; Easton, M.A.
• Is Part Of: Scripta materialia. Number 178(2020)
• Page Start: 447
• Page End: 451
• Publication Date: 2020-03-15
• Subjects: Aluminium alloys -- Grain refining -- Rapid solidification -- Solidification microstructure -- Nucleation free zone; Materials -- Periodicals; Metallurgy -- Periodicals; Metalen; Legeringen; Materiaalkunde; Metals, metalworking and machinery industries; Metals; Electronic journals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2019.12.020
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-6462

Abstract

Abstract: The coarse-grained microstructure of laser surface remelted (LSR) Al– x wt.%Cu ( x = 2, 5 & 7) is significantly refined by Al–3Ti–1B grain refiner. Epitaxial columnar grain growth at the melt pool boundary is suppressed. A reduction in grain size of about 80% is achieved and more than 25% of added TiB2 particles appear to be activated compared to less than 0.1% being activated during casting. The increased nucleation rate is explained in terms of an increase in thermal undercooling, activating a larger number of nucleants of lower potencies, and a reduction in the size of the nucleation free zone. Graphical abstract: Image, graphical abstract