Correlative characterization of primary particles formed in as-cast Al-Mg alloy containing a high level of Sc

•Primary particles exhibit an ‘Al3Sc + α-Al + Al3Sc + ⋯’ multilayer feature with a cellular-dendritic mode of growth.•EBSD analyses the mechanism of grain refinement and the distribution of primary particles in α-Al matrix.•A computational method was presented to calculate the habit planes of primary particles.

Primary particles formed in as-cast Al-5Mg-0.6Sc alloy and their role in microstructure and mechanical properties of the alloy were investigated using optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) and tensile testing. It was found that primary particles due to a close orientation to matrix could serve as the potent heterogeneous nucleation sites for α-Al during solidification and thus impose a remarkable grain refinement effect. Eutectic structure consisted of layer by layer of ‘Al3Sc + α-Al + Al3Sc + ⋯’ and cellular-dendritic substructure were simultaneously observed at the particles inside, indicating that these particles could be identified as the eutectics rather than individual Al3Sc phase. A calculating method, based on EBSD results, was introduced for the spatial distribution of these particles in matrix. The results showed that these eutectic particles randomly distributed in matrix. In addition, the formation of primary eutectic particles significant improved the strength of the Al-Mg alloy in as-cast condition, which is ascribed to the structural evolution from coarse dendrites to prefect fine equiaxed grains. On the other hand, these large-sized particles due to the tendency to act as the microcrack sources could cause a harmful effect in the ductility of Al-Mg-Sc alloy.

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