Grain-refining effects and mechanism of novel Al-Nb-B refiner on Al-Mg-Si alloy: phase-field simulation and experiment study

In this paper, the grain-refining effect of Al-Nb-B refiner in wrought Al alloys and corresponding refining mechanism was investigated using phase-field simulation and experiment methods. Through experimental statistics and data correction, the seed radius introduced by Al-Nb-B refiner into Al alloy...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Li Jun, Jiang Haitao, Wu Xiaoyan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2023-01-01
Series:Materials Research Express
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/acf2e9
Description
Summary:In this paper, the grain-refining effect of Al-Nb-B refiner in wrought Al alloys and corresponding refining mechanism was investigated using phase-field simulation and experiment methods. Through experimental statistics and data correction, the seed radius introduced by Al-Nb-B refiner into Al alloy melt and the corresponding quantitative density distribution data were obtained, and a seed density model (SDM) model has been established. On this basis, a multi-phase field method (MPFM) combined with the calculation of phase diagram (CALPHAD) has been employed to simulate the α -Al grain evolution of Al-Mg-Si alloy during the solidification process with the help of thermodynamic database. Experimental studies showed that the addition of 0.03 wt% Nb (Adding by Al-1.93Nb-0.22B master alloy) significantly reduced the grain size from 956.4 μ m to about 219.4 μ m, and the grain size slowly decreased to 192.3 μ m by continuing to add refiner to 0.09 wt% Nb. Meanwhile, the simulation results demonstrated that after the addition of refiners, dendrite morphology transformed from the relatively developed dendrites with secondary and tertiary dendrites to a fine and uniform equiaxed shape. Simulation and experimental studies showed quantitative agreement. In addition, the results also prove that the addition of Al-Nb-B refiner can provide high-quality and stable heterogeneous nucleation particles.
ISSN:2053-1591