Effect of Cooling Rate on the Dendrite Coherency Point During Solidification of Al2024 Alloy

Most research related to dendrite coherency point (DCP) has been done on cast aluminum alloys and at a low cooling rate condition. In this research, the DCP of a wrought aluminum alloy is calculated in the range of high cooling rates used in the direct-chill casting process. The two-thermocouple thermal analysis technique was used to determine the DCP of Al2024 alloy. The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of different cooling rates on the dendrite coherency characteristics of Al2024. The cooling rates used in the present study range from 0.4 to 17.5 °C s⁻¹. Also, the effect of 1.2 wt pct Al-5Ti-1B grain refiner on the DCP was studied. To calculate the solid fraction at dendrite coherency, solid fraction versus time is plotted based on Newtonian technique. The results show that by increasing the cooling rate, both time and temperature of dendrite coherency are decreased. Also, by adding the Al-5Ti-1B master alloy, dendrite coherency temperature is reduced and dendrite impingement is postponed. To reduce casting defects occurring during equiaxed solidification, e.g., macrosegregation, porosities, and hot tearing, these two operations which lead to postpone the transition from mass to inter-dendritic feeding, or dendrite coherency, can be useful. By increasing the cooling rate, solid fraction at dendrite coherency increases initially and then decreases at higher cooling rates. Presence of grain refiner leads to increasing of solid fraction at DCP. Thus, by delaying the dendrite coherency and increasing the solid fraction at DCP, semi-solid forming can be performed on parts with higher solid fraction and less shrinkage. Microstructural evaluation was carried out to present the correlation between the cooling rate and solid fraction in 2024 aluminum alloy.