Constitutive Equation for Thermal Strain in the Mushy Zone During Solidification of Aluminium Alloys

摘要

A constitutive equation for thermal strain in the mushy zone has recently been established [1]. The parameters in this constitutive relation are in the present study determined for the commercial alloys A356, AA2024, AA6061 and AA7075 in addition to an Al-4 wt% Cu alloy by combining experimentally measured contraction of a cast sample with thermomechanical simulations. The constitutive equation for thermal strain in the mushy zone reflects that there is no thermal strain in the solid part of the mushy zone at low solid fractions and that the thermal strain in the mushy zone approaches thermal contraction in fully solid as the solid fraction increases towards one. Experiments were performed at cooling rates in the range from 2 to 5.5°C/s. The solid fractions when the tested alloys start to contract, (g{sub}s){sup}(th), are in the range from 0.63 to 0.94. Grain refinement increases (g{sub}s){sup}(th) for all the tested alloys.