Evaluation of primary phase morphology of cooling slope cast Al-Si-Mg alloy samples using image texture analysis

Abstract

Rheopressure die casting is one of the newest casting processes of present era for manufacturing of near-net-shaped cast components with improved mechanical properties and high-dimensional accuracy. Rheopressure die casting demands especially prepared semi-solid alloy slurry having nearly globular primary Al phase. In this study, a cooling slope has been employed to produce semi-solid slurry of Al-Si-Mg (A356) alloy and successively cast in a metallic mould. Image texture analysis techniques have been implemented for accurate evaluation of the primary phase morphology of cast samples. In this research, efforts have been made to apply fractal analysis and run-length statistical analysis techniques for automatic characterization of optical micrographs of cast samples produced at different processing conditions.