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Nucleation and Grain Refinement of 7A04 Aluminum Alloy Under a Low-Power Electromagnetic Pulse

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Abstract

The effects of a low-power electromagnetic pulse on the grain size and cooling curve of high-strength aluminum alloy 7A04 were investigated for various pulse duty cycles. This electromagnetic pulse treatment was found to effectively produce fine grains with globular crystals and a uniform microstructure for pulse duty cycles between 20 and 40%. The key factors that affected grain refinement under the electromagnetic pulse included the electromagnetic energy and the conversion frequency between \( \varvec{B} \) and \( \varvec{E} \). The nucleation rate increased as the nucleation period was extended. A new kinetic condition of magnetic nucleation was explored by decreasing the critical Gibbs free energy in the electromagnetic pulse, which was more sensitive under low undercooling. In addition, the crystal orientation was controlled in such a solidification environment.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51 044 002) and the Scientific Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (NJcxy08070).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Material and Metallurgy, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, No.7 Arding Street, 014010, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, People’s Republic of China

    Qingwei Bai, Yonglin Ma, Shuqing Xing, Xinyu Bao & Yanfei Feng

  2. Baotou Vocational and Technical College, Baotou, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaolan Kang

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  1. Qingwei Bai
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  2. Yonglin Ma
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  3. Shuqing Xing
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  4. Xinyu Bao
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Correspondence to Yonglin Ma.

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Bai, Q., Ma, Y., Xing, S. et al. Nucleation and Grain Refinement of 7A04 Aluminum Alloy Under a Low-Power Electromagnetic Pulse. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 27, 857–863 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3128-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3128-x

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