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Effect of Annealing and Metallurgical Treatments on Thermal Conductivity of Aluminium Alloys

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Abstract

This article examines factors affecting the thermal conductivity of aluminium alloys. More specifically, thermal conductivity is measured with the Hot Disk method. The work shows that improvements as high as 50 % in thermal conductivity can be achieved through heat treatment of the studied alloys. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy indicate that some elements in solid solution (particularly silicon) precipitate in aluminium grains during annealing. Modifying the microstructure with strontium and sodium increases thermal conductivity slightly, whereas rheocasting and grain refinement treatments do not affect thermal conductivity. AlB treatment improves thermal conductivity especially in low-silicon primary aluminium alloys. As-cast and heat-treated thermal conductivities of the studied alloys are calculated by applying Matthiessen’s rule and the Wiedemann–Franz law and compared to the measured thermal conductivity.

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted as part of the FIMECC (Finnish Metals and Engineering Competence Cluster) project “Demapp Melt: New Production Technologies via Melt Route”. The authors would like to thank the project leaders for permission to publish the results. We also wish to thank the Aalto Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Department of Engineering Design and Production for SEM work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Foundry Engineering, Aalto University School of Engineering, Espoo, Finland

    Veijo Rauta, Celal Cingi & Juhani Orkas

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  1. Veijo Rauta
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  2. Celal Cingi
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  3. Juhani Orkas
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Correspondence to Veijo Rauta.

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Rauta, V., Cingi, C. & Orkas, J. Effect of Annealing and Metallurgical Treatments on Thermal Conductivity of Aluminium Alloys. Inter Metalcast 10, 157–171 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40962-015-0017-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40962-015-0017-z

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