About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Aluminum Alloys: Development and Manufacturing
|
| Presentation Title |
Microstructure-based approach to map local cooling rate in high pressure die castings |
| Author(s) |
Katherine Rader, Jung-Pyung Choi, Aashish Rohatgi |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Katherine Rader |
| Abstract Scope |
Large-size high-pressure die castings (HPDC) are of growing interest in automotive applications for part consolidation. Within these large castings, local cooling rate and chemistry can vary significantly, which affects local microstructure and mechanical properties. We developed a laboratory-scale, systematic, and instrumented procedure to determine secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) and phase formation as a function of cooling rate in order to map local cooling rates within castings. We fabricated a conical steel mold that produced continuous variable cooling rates over 3 orders of magnitude in a single casting made of C611 alloy. X-ray radiography confirmed the position of thermocouples and metallography was used to measure SDAS at these same positions. For a high-Fe alloy variant, we also identified which Fe-containing phases formed at a given cooling rate. This procedure can be used for other HPDC alloys and has the potential to be automated, which would accelerate the development of mega-castings. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: Light Metals |
| Keywords |
Aluminum, Solidification, Recycling and Secondary Recovery |