Effect of Heat Treatment Conditions and Small Addition of Cu on Occurrence of Serration in Al-Si Alloys

Abstract

In this study, the effect of heat treatment conditions and small addition of Cu on occurrence of serration in Al-Si alloys was investigated. Specimens were aged for various times up to 87ks at 273K or 473K after quenching from 853K, and tensile-tested at room temperature. In the binary alloy, serration was observed even after aging for 87ks at 273K, while in the case of aging at 473K, serration did not occur under aging conditions at aging time, tA≧20s. On the other hand, serration was observed even after aging for 72ks at 473K in the Cu-added alloy. In both alloys, serration was also recognized when the specimens were furnace-cooled from 853K to room temperature. Thus, for aging at 473K of the binary alloy serration was observed only when the aging period was short enough, but addition of Cu to the binary alloy prolonged the aging period where serration could be recognized. Aging rate of both alloys measured by tensile strength was almost the same. The size of precipitates in the Cu-added alloy was smaller than that in binary alloy. Moreover, the number of the precipitates at the grain boundary in the Cu-added alloy was smaller than that in the binary alloy. It is considered that serration occurs for Al-Si alloys when the specimen is heat-treated so that small precipitates may be formed. Now the details of the effect of Cu addition are not clear.