Abstract
Increasing vanadium content in coke used for anodes in aluminium production will lead to rising vanadium concentrations in primary aluminium. Consequently, the vanadium will be found in downstream products such as foundry alloys at levels well above current alloy specifications. The work presented in this article focuses on the effect of different vanadium concentrations on the microstructural features of an as-cast A356 alloy. It is shown that vanadium in excess of 0.2 wt% cause crystals with a distinct polyhedral morphology to precipitate. This phase was identified as Si2V by SEM-EDS measurements. Moreover, traces of vanadium were found in the β-Al5FeSi phase. When the vanadium concentration was increased from 0.06 to 0.8 wt% gradual vanadium enrichment of the β-Al5FeSi from 0.4 to 5.9 wt% occurred. Iron rich particles, which had some solubility for vanadium possessed an almost globular shape and were located within α-Al dendrites or close to the dendrite/eutectic interface.
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Ludwig, T.H., Schaffer, P.L., Arnberg, L. (2016). Influence of Vanadium on the Microstructure of A356 Foundry Alloy. In: Sadler, B.A. (eds) Light Metals 2013. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65136-1_173
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65136-1_173
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