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Effect of Nano-Sized SiO2 Particles Addition on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of As-Cast Ductile Iron

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Abstract

In order to improve the mechanical properties of ductile iron, different contents of SiO2 particles are added into ductile iron in the casting process. The microstructure and mechanical properties of ductile iron are studied. It is found that SiO2 particles can promote the heterogeneous nucleation of austenite, which can indirectly promote the nucleation of graphite, ferrite and cementite. SiO2 particles can also inhibit the growth of austenite, which can further refine ferrite and cementite during the phase transformation. Finally, the average grain size of ferrite decreased to 27.95 μm and the interlamellar spacing of pearlite decreased to 211 nm in sample 0.5S. A large number of granular pearlite appeared in sample 0.75S. The above changes of microstructure affect together the properties of ductile iron, so that the strength, plasticity and toughness were enhanced simultaneously. Ductile iron has the best tensile strength (495 MPa), elongation (26.1%) and impact absorbed energy (22.06 J) with a SiO2 content of 0.75 wt%. With the increase of SiO2 content, the cleavage steps on the tensile and impact fracture surfaces decreased gradually and more and more dimples appeared, which proved that cleavage fracture gradually transformed into ductile fracture.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Qiwen Zhou and Wendong Xu (Shenyang University of Technology, China) for the samples producted and useful discussions.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52204394) and Scientific Research Funding Project of The Education Department of Liaoning Province (Nos. LJKZ0116 and LJKZ0118).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenyang University of Technology, Shenyang, 110870, Liaoning, China

    Yu Zhao, Wei Zhang, Guanglong Li, Shulin Dong, Rongde Li & Yingdong Qu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Light Metals of Liaoning, Shenyang University of Technology, Shenyang, 110870, Liaoning, China

    Yu Zhao, Wei Zhang, Guanglong Li, Shulin Dong, Rongde Li & Yingdong Qu

  3. Shenyang Yate Industrial Machinery Making Equipment Co., Ltd., Shenyang, 110122, Liaoning, China

    Wei Sun

  4. Yangzhou Wutingqiao Cylinder Liner Co., Ltd., Yangzhou, 225000, Jiangsu, China

    Guoping Zhou

  5. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang, China

    Ruirun Chen & Qi Wang

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  1. Yu Zhao
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by YZ, WZ and GL. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YZ and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wei Zhang or Yingdong Qu.

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Zhao, Y., Zhang, W., Li, G. et al. Effect of Nano-Sized SiO2 Particles Addition on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of As-Cast Ductile Iron. Inter Metalcast 18, 1293–1308 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40962-023-01106-6

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