Superior strength and ductility of the Al-Cu alloys inoculated by Zr-based metallic glass at elevated temperatures

At elevated temperatures, the inoculated Al-Cu alloys by Zr-based metallic glass showed the superior tensile properties than the uninoculated alloys, such as: at 433 K and 10−1 s−1, the strength and ductility of the inoculated alloys were 445 MPa and 14.8%, 112 MPa and 3.9% higher than the uninoculated alloys, respectively; at 493 K and 10−1 s−1, the strength and ductility of the inoculated alloys were 340 MPa and 16.5%, with the increment of 36 MPa and 9.8% than the uninoculated alloys, respectively. This is attributed to the smaller grain size and more homogeneously distributed θ′ precipitates.