The growth restriction effect of TiCN nanoparticles on Al-Cu-Zr alloys via ultrasonic treatment

Yiwang Jia; Dongfu Song; Nan Zhou; Kaihong Zheng; Yanan Fu; Da Shu

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2021.105829

The growth restriction effect of TiCN nanoparticles on Al-Cu-Zr alloys via ultrasonic treatment

Ultrason Sonochem. 2021 Dec:80:105829. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2021.105829. Epub 2021 Nov 12.

Authors

Yiwang Jia¹, Dongfu Song², Nan Zhou³, Kaihong Zheng³, Yanan Fu⁴, Da Shu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Metal Toughening Technology and Application, Institute of New Materials, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. Electronic address: ywjia@gimp.gd.cn.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Metal Toughening Technology and Application, Institute of New Materials, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; National Engineering Research Center of Near-net-shape Forming for Metallic Materials, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Metal Toughening Technology and Application, Institute of New Materials, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China.
⁴ Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, CAS, Shanghai 201204, China.
⁵ Shanghai Key Lab of Advanced High-temperature Materials and Precision Forming, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.

Abstract

Ex situ and in situ synchrotron X-radiography study on Al-Cu-Zr alloys with addition of Al-5Ti-1B and TiCN nanoparticles (TiCN_np) were carried out at different cooling rates. Al-Zr alloy can be effectively refined by TiCN_np via Ultrasonic treatment as compared with Al-5Ti-1B which has Zr poisoning effect. The influence of cooling rate on the nucleation and growth of grains have been studied quantitatively. The results show that the grain size was decreased and the growth rate was increased with the increasing of cooling rate. At the same cooling rate, the grain size with addition of 0.5% TiCN_np was smaller than that with the same addition of Al-5Ti-1B. The blocking factor f of TiCN_np decreases with increasing cooling rate. Based on the free growth model, a new numerical model considering the growth restriction effect of nanoparticles was established. The growth of grain was inhibited by the combining effect of solute and nanoparticles. The growth rate of grain is reduced due to part of the solid/liquid interface coated by nanoparticles. The blocking factor f is linearly decreased with the coverage ratio ω which is proportional to the critical grain radius. The grain size decreases with increasing cooling rate and decreasing f . This study is especially beneficial for Al alloys that have poisoning phenomenon inoculated by traditional refiner.

Keywords: Al-Zr alloy; Modeling; TiCN(np); Ultrasonic treatment; X- radiography.