Characterisation of Aluminum Alloys by Octopus Fluidity Test

Abstract

Aluminium and its alloys are the most commonly used alloys in the transportation sector due to their high lightness and strength ratio. The higher corrosion resistance increases the reason why this alloy is preferred. In order to increase the strength values to the desired levels, aluminium alloys are subjected to grain refining with Ti, solution hardening with Mg and Cu and microstructural modifications with Sr. In this study, the relationship between Ag addition to Al-Cu alloy, mould filling ability with Sr addition to Al-Si alloys were investigated. In addition to the traditional spiral tests, newly developed 8-spoke, which is named as octopus design, was used to characterise the fluidity. Ag addition in the Al-Cu alloy (201) has no effect on fluidity particularly in spiral test but it has been observed to increase the strength by 50-80 MPa. On the other hand, high fluidity and strengths up to 350 MPa were achieved by A380 alloy.