Influence of Si, Cu, B, and Trace Alloying Elements on the Conductivity of the Al-Si-Cu Alloy

The influence of Si, Cu, B, and trace alloying elements on the conductivity of aluminum die cast 12 (ADC12) alloy was investigated. The conductivity decreased linearly with increasing volume fraction of the Si phase attributed to a linear decrease of the volume of the more conductive Al phase throug...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhao Yang, Xiaolong He, Bin Li, Andrej Atrens, Xuyue Yang, Hanming Cheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-01-01
Series:Materials
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/15/2/426
Description
Summary:The influence of Si, Cu, B, and trace alloying elements on the conductivity of aluminum die cast 12 (ADC12) alloy was investigated. The conductivity decreased linearly with increasing volume fraction of the Si phase attributed to a linear decrease of the volume of the more conductive Al phase through a rule of mixtures. The conductivity also decreased with increasing Cu content, between 0~3%. The conductivity increased with increasing B content, reached the peak at 0.02% B and thereafter decreased somewhat. The mechanism was that B reacted with the transition element in the Al phase to form boride, decreasing the transition element concentration in the Al lattice, and decreasing the lattice constant. The thermal conductivity, λ, was related to the electrical conductivity, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi>σ</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula>, by means of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi mathvariant="sans-serif">λ</mi><mo>=</mo><mrow><mi>LT</mi><mi mathvariant="sans-serif">σ</mi></mrow><mo>+</mo><msub><mi mathvariant="sans-serif">λ</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">g</mi></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, where L is the apparent Lorentz constant, 1.86 × 10<sup>−8</sup>; T is the absolute temperature, 293 K; λ<sub>g</sub> is the lattice conductivity, 42.3 W/(m·K).
ISSN:1996-1944