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Microstructure and compressive properties of chill-cast Mg-Al-Ca alloys

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Abstract

Mg82Al8Ca10 was determined to be a pseudo-binary eutectic composition [liquid solidifying into α-Mg and (Mg,Al)2Ca in the Mg-Al-Ca ternary system with a eutectic melting temperature of 789 K]. A series of Mgx(Al0.44Ca0.56)100−x alloys, where 75 ≤ x ≤ 95, were cast into Φ4 mm rods using copper mold casting. The eutectic alloy exhibits the highest fracture strength, σf = 609 MPa. For 75 ≤ x ≥ 79, the alloys have hypereutectic microstructures with Mg2Ca as the primary phase, and σf is reduced together with diminishing plasticity. For hypoeutectic alloys with 86 ≤ x ≥ 95, the volume fraction of the primary α-Mg dendrites dispersed in the eutectic matrix increases with increasing x, resulting in a gradual decrease of the yield and fracture strengths but improved plastic strain to as large as 9%. The refined microstructures created in bulk samples via chill casting can lead to a good combination of strength and plasticity, with specific strength superior to commercial Mg alloys.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, People’s Republic of China

    Ling-Ling Shi, Han Ma, Teng Liu & Jian Xu

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 21218, USA

    En Ma

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  1. Ling-Ling Shi
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  2. Han Ma
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Correspondence to En Ma.

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Shi, LL., Ma, H., Liu, T. et al. Microstructure and compressive properties of chill-cast Mg-Al-Ca alloys. Journal of Materials Research 21, 613–622 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2006.0074

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