Strength and Fracture Studies of as-cast Al-Si-Cu Alloys

Abstract

Aluminum-silicon (Al-Si) alloys are an important class of materials, which has great interested in aerospace and automobile industries, due to their superior properties like high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance and excellent castability. Within this family of alloys, Al-Si-Cu cast alloy (3XXX series) is frequently employed in automotive applications. In the present work, the strength and fracture studies of as-cast Al-Si-Cu alloys have been studied. As cast alloys have been characterized using XRD and optical microscope. To evaluate the strength of these alloys, a Tensometer has been employed and the fracture surfaces have been observed under SEM to understand the mode of fracture. It has been observed that the fracture surface of the alloys mainly shows brittle characteristics. The porosity and blowhole present in the cast alloy has been the dominating factor for low strength of the alloys.