Microstructure, tensile properties and creep behavior of Al-12Si-3.5Cu-2Ni-0.8Mg alloy produced by different casting technologies

The relationship between the as-cast microstructure and mechanical properties of the Al-12Si-3.5Cu-2Ni-0.8Mg alloys produced by permanent mold casting (PMC) and high pressure die casting (HPDC) is investigated. The alloys in both PMC and HPDC consist of Al, Si, Al5Cu2Mg8Si6, Al3CuNi, and Al7Cu4Ni phase. However, the microstructure of the HPDC alloy is significantly refined. Compared to the PMC alloy, the ultimate tensile strength of the HPDC alloy is significantly increased from 244 MPa to 310 MPa, while the elongation shows a reverse trend at room temperature. At low stress and temperature range, slight variations of stress exponent and activation energy indicate that the minimum creep rate is controlled by the grain boundary creep. Then the minimum creep rate is higher for the specimen with the smaller grain size, where grain boundary creep is the dominant creep mechanism. At high stress region, the stress exponent for the PMC alloy and HPDC alloy is 5.18 and 3.07, respectively. The different stress exponents and activation energies measured at high stress and high temperature range indicates that the creep mechanism varies with the casting technologies.