• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.350-352
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• 2009

The effect of porosity on the high-cycle fatigue properties of Al-Si-Mg casting aluminum alloys was investigated in this study. Microstructure examination, tensile and high-cycle fatigue test were conducted on both Al-Si-Mg casted (F) and heat-treated (T6) conditions. Porosity characteristics on the fracture surfaces of fatigue-tested samples were examined using SEM and image analysis. The microstructure observation results showed that eutectic Si particles were homogeneously dispersed in the matrix of the Al-Si-Mg casting alloys, but there were porosities formed as cast defects. The high-cycle fatigue results indicated that the fatigue strength of the 356-T6 alloy was higher than that of the 356-F alloys because of the significant reduction in volume fraction of pores by heat treatment. The SEM fractography results showed that porosity affected detrimental effect on the fatigue life: 80% of all tested samples fractured as a result of porosity which acted as the main crack initiation site. It was found that fatigue life decreased as the size of the surface pore increased. A comparison was made between surface pore and inner pore fur its effect on the fatigue behavior. The results showed that the fatigue strength with the inner pores was higher than that of the surface pore.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.66-75
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• 2020

The aim of this study was to optimize a solid solution treatment for a high pressure die casting Al-10Si-0.3Mg-0.6Mn alloy to avoid blistering and to improve the strength of the alloy. To achieve this goal, the number density of the blisters and the strength of the alloy under various solid solution treatment (SST) conditions were evaluated. The SST was performed at 470, 490, 510 and 530℃ for 20, 60, 120, 240 and 480 min on the alloy. The number density of the blisters increased with the increasing temperature and time of the SST and the defect area fraction. The yield strength of the alloy after the T6 heat treatment increased with the increasing SST temperature and time. Based on the results, it is suggested that SST should be performed at 510℃ within 60 min. or at 470 and 490℃ within 240 min. to avoid blistering and to improve the strength.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2023

In order to broaden the range of application of light weight aluminum alloys, it is necessary to enhance the mechanical properties of the alloys and combine them with other materials, such as cast iron. In this study, the effects of adding small amounts of Cu and Zr to the Al-Si-Mg based alloy on tensile properties and corrosion characteristics were investigated, and the effect of the addition on the interfacial compounds layer with the cast iron was also analyzed. Although the tensile strength of the Al-Si-Mg alloy was not significantly affected by the additions of Cu and Zr, the corrosion resistance in 3.5 %NaCl solution was found to be somewhat lowered in this research. The influence of Cu and Zr addition on the type and thickness of the interfacial compounds layer formed during compound casting with cast iron was not significant, and the main interfacial compounds were identified to be Al₅FeSi and Al₈Fe₂Si phases, as in the case of the Al-Si-Mg alloys.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.34-45
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• 2010

The effects of alloy elements and cooling rate on the solidification path and the formation behavior of $\beta$ phase in Fe-containing Al-Si alloys were studied based on the thermodynamic analysis and the pertinent experiments. The thermodynamic calculation was systematically performed by using Thermo-Calc program. For the thermodynamic analysis in high alloy region of Al-Si-Fe ternary system, a thermodynamic database for Thermo-Calc was correctly updated and revised by the collected up-to-date references. For the thermodynamic-based prediction of various solidification paths in Fe-containing Al-Si system, liquidus projection of Al-Si-Fe ternary system, including isotherms, invariant, monovariant, bivariant reactions and equilibrium temperatures, was calculated and analyzed as functions of composition and temperature. The calculated results were compared to the experimental results using various casting specimens. In order to analyze various solidification sequences as functions of Si and Fe content, 4 representative alloy compositions, low Fe content in both low and high Si contents and high Fe content again in both low and high Si contents, were designed in this study. For better understanding of the influence of cooling rate on the formation behavior of $\beta$ phase, 4 alloys were solidified under furnace and rapidly cooled conditions. Cooling curves of solidified alloys were recorded by thermal analysis. Various important solidification events were evaluated using the first derivative-cooling curves. Microstructures of the casting samples were studied by the combined analysis of optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2011

Effect of Fe and Mn contents on the tensile properties has been studied in Al-9wt%Si-0.3wt%Mg alloy. As Fe content of Al-9wt%Si-0.3wt%Mg-0.5wt%Mn alloy increased from 0.15wt% to 0.45wt%, tensile strength of as-cast alloy decreased from 192 MPa to 174 MPa, and elongation of the alloy also decreased from 4.8% to 4.2%. Decrease of these properties can be explained as the formation of plate shape, ${\beta}-Al_5FeSi$ phase with high Fe/Mn ratio of the alloy. However when Mn content of Al-9wt%Si-0.3wt%Mg-0.45wt%Fe alloy increased from 0.3wt% to 0.5wt%, tensile strength of T6 aged alloy increased from 265 MPa to 275 MPa, and elongation of the alloy increased from 2.3% to 3.6%. These improvements attribute to chinese script, ${\alpha}-Al_{15}(Mn,Fe)_3Si_2$ phase shape-modified from ${\beta}-Al_5FeSi$ phase with low Fe/Mn ratio of the alloy.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.171-180
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• 2013

The effects of alloying elements on the solidification characteristics, microstructure, thermal conductivity, and tensile strength of Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys were investigated for the development of high strength and high thermal conductivity aluminium alloy for die casting. The amounts of Zn and Mg in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys had little effect on the liquidus/solidus temperature, the latent heat for solidification, the energy release for solidification and the fluidity of Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys. Thermo-physical modelling of Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys by the JMatPro program showed $MgZn_2$, AlCuMgZn and $Al_3Fe$ phases in the microstructure of the alloys. Increased amounts of Mg in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys resulted in phase transformation, such as $MgZn_2{\Rightarrow}MgZn_2+AlCuMgZn{\Rightarrow}AlCuMgZn$ in the microstructure of the alloys. Increased amounts of Zn and Mg in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys resulted in a gradual reduction of the thermal conductivity of the alloys. Increased amounts of Zn and Mg in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys had little effect on the tensile strength of the alloys.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

In this study, we focused on the correlation between the solidification structure, heat treatment and mechanical properties of the A356 alloy according to the conditions of Sr modification. The microstructural evolution of the eutectic Si and ${\alpha}-Al$ phase in the A356 alloy castings depending on the amount of Sr were investigated during solid solution heat treatment using an optical microscope, a scanning electron microscope and an image analyzer. In addition, tensile tests on the heat treated materials examined the relationship between the microstructure and the fracture surface. The as-cast A356 alloys under 40 ppm Sr showed an undermodified microstructure, but that of the added 60-80 ppm Sr had well modified structure of fine fibrous silicon. After solid solution treatment, the microstructure of the undermodified A356 alloy exhibited a partially spheroidized morphology, but the remainder showed the fragmentation of fibrous shaped silicon. The spheroidization of the eutectic silicon in the modified A356 alloys was completed during heat treatment, which was very effective in increasing the elongation. This is supported by the fracture surface in the tensile test.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.293-301
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• 2011

Representative magnesium alloys applied to the die-casting are AZ91, AM60, etc., and the application of these alloys is restricted to components operating at moderate temperatures, due to grain boundary siding of ${\beta}$-phase($Mg_{17}Al_{12}$) at temperatures above $120^{\circ}C$. Heat-resistant magnesium alloys such as AE42, AE44 have been developed, but that have been too burdensome to produce because of the expensive rare earth materials. Research work for the development of low-priced heat-resistant magnesium alloy is actively in progress and positive results are being reported. This study aims to investigate the effect of Ca additions on mechanical properties of Mg-4Al-2Sn heat resistant magnesium alloys. Mg-4Al-2Sn alloys with Ca (0wt.%, 0.3wt.%, 0.7wt.%, 1wt.%) have been produced through the die-casting process for the development of low-priced heat-resistant magnesium alloy, and high temperature tensile tests are performed using the specimens. The results showed that mechanical properties of Mg-4Al-2Sn-xCa increased with the addition of Ca up to 0.7wt.% Ca and further addition of Ca deteriorated the mechanical properties of the alloys. A significant amount of porosity was observed at the sample with 1wt%. Ca and the longer freezing range of the alloy was believed to cause the formation of porosity.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.127-132
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• 2012

Al-Zn-Mg alloys, being high strength aluminum alloys, have attracted attention as a material of automobile parts that require higher mechanical properties and lightness. Automobile parts with complex shapes are manufactured by low-priced casting method, but Al-Zn-Mg alloys are difficult to cast because of its poor hot cracking, feeding, and fluidity. Thus fluidity experiments on Al-Zn-Mg alloys were conducted for the castability evaluation. The effects of Mg and Zn, representative elements of Al-Zn-Mg alloys, on fluidity were observed. Spiral mold was used for fluidity experiments and the lengths of solidified specimens were measured after melting and gravity casting. Correlation between microstructures and fluidity length based on the alloy composition was considered. According to the experimental results, as the amount of Mg and Zn increased, fluidity decreased. Also, it was confirmed that fluidity change by the variation of Mg composition was greater than that of Zn.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.237-244
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• 1997

This study has been carried out to investigate into the influence of solidification conditions mold on the structure and mechanical properties of Al-5wt%Mg alloy by metallic mold casting. The percentage of equiaxed grain of Al-5wt%Mg alloy castings increased both when pouring temperature decreased and when the low part or bottom of metallic mold was cooled. The hardness was checked and showed that hardness of outside in the castings was higher than that inside, and that it is the highest at the pouring temperature of $680^{\circ}C$. The castings had the highest U.T.S. and elongation when the bottom of metallic mold was cooled. At the same pouring temperature, the structure of castings was changed as the position of cooling parts of metallic mold was varied. When the castings were solidified through cooling of the bottom of the metallic mold, the morphology of Fe intermetallic compound has tendency to change to a Chinese script and the U.T.S. and elongation of Al-5wt.%Mg alloy castings was increased.