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Effect of Zr grain refinement on solidification behavior of Mg–3Nd alloy by cooling curve thermal analysis

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Abstract

The effect of Zr content on the microstructure and solidification behavior of as-cast Mg–3Nd alloy was studied. It was found that adding Zr can effectively improve the microstructure of the Mg–3Nd alloy, resulting in a transition from coarse dendritic structures to finely-grained equiaxed structures. The size of the second phase also decreases and becomes more uniformly distributed. The optimal amount of Zr for refining the Mg–3Nd alloy was determined to be 0.4%, which resulted in a reduction in grain size from 2015 ± 189 to 68 ± 5 μm. Thermal analysis was used to determine the solidification parameters of the Mg–3Nd alloy. It was found that Zr refinement mainly affected the solidification behavior in the liquid region. With the increase of Zr content, the nucleation temperature (TN,α) of α-Mg increased, the nucleation undercooling (ΔTN,α) and the Recalescence undercooling (ΔTR,α) decreased. After the optimal refinement effect, the recalescence phenomenon disappeared, and the addition of Zr accelerated the formation of the solid phase. There is a good correlation between the solidification parameters in the liquid region and the grain size. With the refinement effect of Zr can be predicted by ΔTR,α, and the maximum first derivative in the liquid area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Major Special Project of Heilongjiang Province (No.2020ZX03A03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, 150040, China

    Shuqin Luo

  2. School of Material Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, 150040, China

    Lei Wang & Yang Cao

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  1. Shuqin Luo
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  2. Lei Wang
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Luo, S., Wang, L. & Cao, Y. Effect of Zr grain refinement on solidification behavior of Mg–3Nd alloy by cooling curve thermal analysis. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 4049–4058 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12026-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12026-2

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