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Structural and crystallographic study on 3004 aluminum alloy ingot by horizontal direct chill casting under combined electromagnetic fields

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Abstract

Effect of combined electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on the structures of a 3004 aluminum alloy ingot produced by horizontal direct chill casting was crystallographically investigated. The results showed that the structure was transformed from a mixture of equiaxed and fine columnar grains to coarse columnar grains with switching off the EMFs. With the EMFs the grain size is small and shows a uniform distribution, whereas without the EMFs it is increased and reveals inhomogeneous distribution on the cross section. Besides, a transition region composed of fine equiaxed grains appeared at the moment the EMFs were switched off (between the mixture and coarse columnar grains). Furthermore, the microstructure transformation is accompanied by a crystallographic orientation change from a preferred <100> orientation to a random orientation, and then to an intense <100> fiber texture. The structural and crystallographic transformations are mainly related to the forced convection in the melt due to the induced Lorentz force by the EMFs.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51201029, 51204053, and 51204046), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (N130409002 and N130409005), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2012M520637).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Li, Qingfeng Zhu, Zhihao Zhao, Haitao Zhang, Yubo Zuo & Jianzhong Cui

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  1. Lei Li
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  2. Qingfeng Zhu
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  3. Zhihao Zhao
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  4. Haitao Zhang
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  5. Yubo Zuo
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  6. Jianzhong Cui
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Correspondence to Lei Li.

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Li, L., Zhu, Q., Zhao, Z. et al. Structural and crystallographic study on 3004 aluminum alloy ingot by horizontal direct chill casting under combined electromagnetic fields. Journal of Materials Research 30, 745–752 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.29

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