The behaviour of double oxide film defects in Al–4.5 wt% Mg melt

The possibility of bonding of the two layers of a double oxide film defect when held in a liquid Al–4.5 wt% Mg alloy was investigated. The defect was modelled experimentally by maintaining two aluminium oxide layers in contact with each other in an Al–4.5 wt% Mg liquid alloy at 750 °C from 2 min to 16 h. Any changes in the composition and morphology of these layers were studied by SEM, EDX and XRD. The results showed that in contrast to previous studies reported in the literature on Al–0.3 wt% Mg in which the two layers bonded to each other after a holding time of 5 h, no bonding took place between the two oxide layers even after a holding time of 16 h. Based on the comparison between the two studies, it was concluded that a transformation involving rearrangement of atoms at the interface between the two oxide layers is essential for the bonding to take place between the two oxide layers. This criterion could be used to predict the bonding behaviour of oxide film defects when held in different liquid aluminium alloys, or when subjected to a HIPping process.