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Computer Aided Cooling Curve Analysis and Microstructure of Cerium Added

Hypereutectic Al–Si (LM29) Alloy

Article  in  Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals · August 2014

DOI: 10.1007/s12666-014-0379-6

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Trans Indian Inst Met (2014) 67(4):541–549
DOI 10.1007/s12666-014-0379-6

TECHNICAL PAPER TP 2783

Computer Aided Cooling Curve Analysis and Microstructure

of Cerium Added Hypereutectic Al–Si (LM29) Alloy
V. Vijeesh • K. Narayan Prabhu

Received: 28 July 2013 / Accepted: 2 January 2014 / Published online: 9 March 2014
Ó Indian Institute of Metals 2014

Abstract Thermal analysis of LM29 alloy and Ce added combustion engine parts, especially in pistons. The alloys
LM29 alloys was carried out. The effect of cerium addition are also used in connecting rods, rocker arms, cylinder
on solidification parameters and microstructural features of sleeves and piston rings. The cast microstructure of
hypereutectic Al-Si (LM29) alloy was studied using hypereutectic alloy generally consists of coarse and seg-
Newtonian analysis technique. Thermal analysis parame- regated primary silicon crystals along with unmodified
ters such as primary and eutectic phase nucleation and eutectic silicon. Even though the primary silicon could be
solidus temperatures were determined. The addition of Ce refined by phosphorous treatment, the eutectic silicon
to LM29 alloy decreased the nucleation temperature of remains unaffected [1–3]. To meet the emission standards
primary silicon and eutectic silicon. The microstructural and fuel efficiency, there is a constant demand for high
examination of Ce added LM29 alloys revealed the pre- temperature mechanical properties. Further improvement
sence of a polyhedral shaped Al–Si–Ce compound that in properties of hypereutectic Al–Si alloy can be achieved
might have caused the refinement of primary and eutectic by simultaneous modification of eutectic silicon and
silicon. The dendrite coherency point temperature of LM29 refinement of primary silicon [4, 5]. To find an alternative
alloy was found to be suppressed on addition of Ce. to phosphorous, hypereutectic alloys were treated with
rare-earth elements. Kores et al. [6] found that Cerium (Ce)
Keywords Hypereutectic Al–Si alloys  Cerium  treatment resulted in simultaneous refinement and modifi-
Thermal analysis  Newtonian analysis  cation of both primary and eutectic silicon at an optimum
Dendrite coherency point (DCP) quantity of 1 wt%. In addition to this, studies by Harun
et al. [7] and Anasyida et al. [8] revealed that the wear
resistance of the hypereutectic alloy increased with Ce
1 Introduction addition. Since melt treatment by cerium is in the initial
stages of the research, further studies are required to
Aluminum–Silicon alloys with silicon content greater than develop it as an alternative to phosphorous treatment.
13 wt% are classified as hypereutectic Al–Si alloys. Due to Computer aided cooling curve analysis is an online
high silicon content, the hypereutectic Al–Si alloys have prediction tool that can be used effectively to determine the
low coefficient of thermal expansion and higher wear wide range of thermo-metallurgical information related to
resistance compared to other Al–Si alloys. Hypereutectic metals or alloys. The process involves measuring the
Al–Si alloys are therefore extensively used in internal temperature history of the sample with respect to time and
determining the thermal characteristics, fraction solid and
latent heat during melting or solidification [9–11]. Unlike
hypoeutectic Al–Si alloys, the hypereutectic alloys are
V. Vijeesh  K. N. Prabhu (&) rarely characterized using thermal analysis techniques.
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering,
Previous studies on hypereutectic alloy reveal that the
National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Srinivasnagar,
Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India thermal analysis technique can be used to detect the
e-mail: prabhukn_2002@yahoo.co.in nucleating phases, corresponding temperatures and the

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542 Trans Indian Inst Met (2014) 67(4):541–549

latent heat of fusion. Thermal analysis study on hypereu- dT UAðT  T0 Þ

tectic alloy by Robles and Sokolowski [12], detected the ¼ ¼ DBL ð2Þ
dt mCp
possible transformation of Si agglomerate to primary sili-
con. Robles carried out a detailed study on hypereutectic Equation 2 corresponds to the DBL for the Newtonian
alloys (390.1 and 393.2). The results were used to confirm analysis. The DBL for Newtonian analysis was found out
the transformation of Si agglomerates into primary silicon by fitting an appropriate polynomial of order greater than 2
and detect the other phases involved. However, a detailed to the portion of FDC, corresponding to the mushy region
investigation is required to understand the effect of process (Tliq \ T \ Tsol). The area between the curves was
parameters such as cooling rate, undercooling, nucleation calculated by subtracting DBL from the FDC. The total
temperature etc., on the evolution of microstructure and latent heat is calculated and was determined in the form:
properties of the hypereutectic alloy. Thermal analysis can Zte
be related to the casting defects and would be a useful input L ¼ Cp FDC  DBL ð3Þ
for simulation of casting solidification [9–12]. One of the ts
key requirements in the determination of thermal parame-
ters is finding out the amount of heat liberated during where ts and te are the times for start and end of solidifi-
metallurgical transformations. This is commonly done by cation and the fraction solid between the duration can be
fitting a data base line (DBL) to the first derivative curve obtained by finding out cumulative area as the fraction of
(FDC) and then finding out the area under the curves. In total area between the curves.
other words, the DBL would be the path taken by the FDC Computer-aided cooling curve can be used to determine
of the metal or alloy in the absence of any metallurgical the DCP. DCP is the point at which the growing dendrites
reactions. There are two known techniques namely, New- in metal/alloys start to touch each other and form inter-
tonian and Fourier analysis, by which a DBL is calculated connected networks throughout the sample [16]. It is a
and fitted to the derivative curve. point at which the mass feeding of the liquid metal shifts to
In present work the thermal analysis of cerium added inter-dendrite feeding and results in the formation of
hypereutectic Al–Si (LM29) alloy was carried out using casting defects, such as segregation, hot-tearing and
Newtonian analysis. Cerium being a potential candidate for shrinkage porosity. DCP is of great interest in solidification
simultaneous refinement of both primary and eutectic sili- simulation as it influences the ability of the metal in filling
con, it is very important to quantify its effect on thermal complex shapes and in the formation of inter-metallic
parameters. An attempt has been made to assess the effect compounds. The DCP can be determined either by rheo-
of Ce addition on solidification path, nucleation tempera- logical methods or by thermal analysis. The first method
ture, fraction solid and dendrite coherency point (DCP) of identifies DCP as the point where there is an abrupt change
hypereutectic Al–Si (LM29) alloy. in the measured torque due to the change in the mechanical
strength of the solidifying sample [17]. In thermal analysis,
DCP corresponds to the point where the thermal conduc-
2 Theory tivity of the solidifying sample increases from a minimum
value. It is based on the fact that the thermal conductivity
Newtonian analysis is based on the lumped heat capaci- of the solid is higher than the liquid. The method uses two
tance method which assumes a negligible thermal gradient thermocouples, one at center (Tc) and another near to the
across the sample (Biot number = hL/k \ 0.1). The heat wall (Tw), to record temperature differences with respect to
transfer coefficient from the sample to the surrounding by the solidification time. The minimum point in the temper-
convection, conduction and radiation can be a function of ature difference (DT = Tw - Tc) curve corresponds to the
single unique temperature. The Newtonian analysis for DCP [18]. The second derivative of temperature with
solidification of an alloy is mathematically expressed as respect to time of a single centre thermocouple is also used
[13–15], to identify the DCP. It is based on the assumption that the
solidification affects the cooling rate and DCP is identified
dQ dT
 mCp ¼ UAðT  T0 Þ ð1Þ as point in the second derivative curve, where the curve
dt dt shows a deviation [19]. It was found that the second
where Q is the latent heat of solidification, Cp is the derivative signals are very weak and it is very difficult to
specific heat of the metal/alloy, T is the metal/alloy identify the DCP point from the second derivative curve.
temperature, U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, A is Recently, Djurdjevic et al. [19], based on their studies,
the sample surface area and To is the ambient temperature. concluded that the FDC itself can be used in identifying the
In the absence of any metallurgical reaction (dQ/dt = 0), coherency point. According to Djurdjevic et al. [19] DCP
Eq. 1 can be rewritten as, can be identified by closely examining the loops in the

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Trans Indian Inst Met (2014) 67(4):541–549 543

temperature versus the FDC. It is chosen as the point where

the derivative curve suddenly deviates from the horizontal
tangent.

3 Experimental Procedure

LM29 (Al–22 % Si–0.8 % Cu–0.8 % Mg) alloy was used

in the present study. About 300 g of the alloy sample taken
in a graphite crucible was melted in an electrical resistance
furnace. Cerium was added to the melt in varying quanti-
ties (0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 wt%) at 800 °C. After the addition of
Ce, liquid metal was maintained at 800 °C for 30 min. The
holding time was constant at about 30 min for all experi-
ments. The crucible was removed from the furnace and
cooled under near equilibrium conditions. The crucible was Fig. 1 Cooling and FDCs for Al–Si (LM29) alloy
insulated properly using insulator blanket to prevent heat
losses. A K-type thermocouple was inserted at the center of
the crucible (Tc) to record the cooling behavior of the alloy solidification, total solidification time were calculated from
in the range of 800–400 °C during solidification. The the cooling and FDCs and the measured values are given in
thermal analysis set-up was designed to ensure a constant Table 1. The thermal analysis results provide information
thermocouple height of 10 mm from bottom of the cruci- on nucleation temperatures for both primary and eutectic
ble. Thermocouple was connected to a high-speed data silicon during solidification of the alloy. The nucleation
acquisition system (NI USB 9162) interfaced with a PC. temperature for primary silicon was found to be 707.2 °C
The scanning rate used for experiments was 10 Hz and the and this temperature corresponds to the transformation of
accuracy of thermocouple used was ±0.5 °C. The experi- the dissolved Si atom clusters into primary silicon particles.
mental set-up was covered with glass-wool blanket to According to Robles and Sokolowski [12], the Si–Si atoms
maintain constant cooling conditions for all experiments segregate or form clusters at temperatures as high as
and the cooling rate was found to be 0.2 °C/s. The logged 1,075 °C with a different crystalline structure than that of
temperature data was used to generate cooling curves and solid silicon. Some researchers suggested that these clus-
derivative curves of the alloy. ters would be beneficial for the formation of primary sili-
Specimens were prepared from the casting for micro- con and the morphology and the size of primary silicon
structural examination. They were polished using silicon particles are directly dependent on the size of the Si clus-
carbide papers of varying grit sizes (180, 220, 400, 800 and ters [20, 21].
1000). Specimen were washed and dried after each cycle of The nucleation and growth of the primary silicon par-
polishing. The final polishing was done using rotating disc ticles from the liquid into the surroundings causes rejection
polisher with 0.3 lm alumina suspension. The micro- of the aluminum solvent until the local concentration is
structures of the specimens were then examined under sufficient to nucleate a-Al phase. The partitioned Al phase
JEOL JSM-6380LA scanning electron microscope. Each from the growing crystals accumulates around the Si par-
experiment was conducted three times to ensure consis- ticles and appears as halos and restricts the further growth
tency in the experimental results. of Si particles. The precipitation of a-Al phase results in an
increasing Si content in the remaining liquid and eventually
crystallizes as the coupled zone to form eutectic region [22,
4 Results and Discussion 23]. The eutectic nucleation temperature and solidus tem-
perature for LM29 alloy were found to be 565.9 and
4.1 Calculation of Fraction Solid 549.3 °C respectively.
The DBL is of immense importance for the calculation
The recorded thermal analysis data was used to plot the of latent heat and fraction solid of alloys. In Newtonian
cooling and FDCs. For accurate identification of inflection analysis, the linear fitting of DBL to the FDC is done. Few
points, the FDC was smoothed and plotted. Typical cooling data points, before and after solidification are used to fit a
curve and its FDC for LM29 alloy are shown in Fig. 1. linear curve in this technique. Figure 2 shows a typical
Solidification parameters such as nucleation temperature, FDC merged with the best fit linear curve, which form a
cooling rate, eutectic temperature, start and end of DBL to the FDC.

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544 Trans Indian Inst Met (2014) 67(4):541–549

Table 1 Effect of cerium addition on solidification parameters of LM29 alloy

Alloy Nucleation temperature (°C) Eutectic temperature (°C) DCP temperature (°C) Solidus temperature (°C)

LM29-without Ce 707.2 ± 0.5 565.9 ± 0.5 549.3 ± 0.3 563.5 ± 0.7

LM29?0.5 % Ce 700.2 ± 2 565.1 ± 0.2 548.3 ± 0.7 562.1 ± 1.0
LM29?1 % Ce 695.5 ± 0.5 564.0 ± 1 547 ± 1.0 561.6 ± 0.5
LM29?1.5 % Ce 686.7 ± 3.0 562.7 ± 1.5 546.7 ± 1.0 560.4 ± 1.0
LM29?2 % Ce 692.6 ± 3.0 563.2 ± 2 546.3 ± 1.5 560.4 ± 2

Fig. 3 Distribution of fraction solid with temperature calculated

Fig. 2 FDC superimposed on DBL using Newtonian analysis

The fraction solid was calculated by finding out the net FDC in DCP determination. Here the first derivative (oT ot
) is
area between FDC and DBL curves. The latent heat cal- plotted against temperature and DCP was determined by
culated using Eq. 3 is equal to the product of specific heat identifying the loop in the curve. From Fig. 4a it is clear
and area between the curves. that at DCP a loop is formed due to the change in the
Fraction solid is given as: cooling rate. Initially due to the formation of dendrite
f s ¼ Lt =Li ð4Þ network the cooling rate has increased, because the thermal
conductivity of the solid network formed is higher than the
where Lt is the total latent heat and Li is latent heat at each liquid. The cooling rate decreased later forming a complete
instant. The fraction solid can be therefore rewritten as loop. This decrease in cooling rate can be attributed to the
Rt latent heat liberated due to the formation of solid. Hence at
FDC  DBL
f s ¼ R tste DCP there is a slight increase in temperature attributing to
ts FDC  DBL the latent heat liberated due to the formation of dendrite
Cummulative area till instant of time
¼ ð5Þ network. Figure 4b shows the increase in temperature with
Total area the increase in fraction solid. The change in slope of the
Figure 3 shows the solid fraction versus temperature for fraction solid curve indicates the contribution of dendrite
Newtonian analysis. The accuracy of the fraction solid network to the increase in temperature.
curves depends on the fitting of an appropriate DBL to the
FDC. From Fig. 3 it is clear that the fraction solid up to 4.3 Effect of Cerium
eutectic nucleation for the alloy without addition is 0.3. It
implies that 30 % of the alloy is solidified as primary silicon. Figure 5 shows the cooling curves of cerium added alloys.
The measured cooling curve parameters are given in
4.2 Determination of DCP Table 1. From Table, it is obvious that cerium has signif-
icant effect on characteristic solidification temperatures
The first derivative of the cooling curve was used to (nucleation, eutectic, solidus and DCP). The results indi-
determine DCP of the alloy. Figure 4a illustrates the use of cate that the cerium addition has decreased the nucleation

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Trans Indian Inst Met (2014) 67(4):541–549 545

temperature of primary silicon was reported by Kores et al.

[6]. They studied the effect of Ce addition on cast iron cell
solidified Al–17 % Si alloy and reported that, the primary
silicon nucleation temperature decreased from 686 to
591.9 °C on 1 % Ce addition to the melt.
The effect of cerium addition on the cooling curves is
shown in Fig. 5. The solidification time of the alloy
decreased with the addition of cerium. The time of solid-
ification was lowest at 1.5 wt% of Ce. From the results
given in Table 1 and Fig. 5 it is clear that Ce had a sig-
nificant influence on the nucleation and growth of primary
silicon. The primary silicon nucleation temperature
decreased with Ce addition up to 1.5 wt% and then it was
found to increase with further increase in Ce addition to the
melt. The latent heat of all alloys was calculated using
Eq. 3 to assess the effect of addition of Ce. An average Cp
value of 1.2 J/g for mushy state was used for calculation
[15]. The latent heat evolved for alloys without Ce,
0.5 wt% Ce, 1.0 wt% Ce, 1.5 wt% Ce, 2.0 wt% Ce were
found to be 459, 428, 448, 417, 411 J/g respectively. Fig-
ure 6 shows the effect of Ce on the fraction solidified. At a
given temperature the fraction of solid formed was lower
for Ce added alloys. This is attributed to the ability of Ce
atoms to suppress the nucleation and growth of the primary
silicon.
One of the characteristic features of eutectic modifica-
tion is the depression of eutectic nucleation temperature by
the addition of modifying agent. The present investigation
Fig. 4 a FDC versus temperature curve for DCP determination. also shows similar kind of depression in eutectic nucleation
b FDC superimposed on fraction solid curve showing a change in and growth temperatures. From Table 1 it is clear that the
slope at DCP eutectic nucleation temperature decreases with Ce addition
and reaches a minimum value of 562.7 °C at 1.5 wt% Ce.
temperature of primary silicon. For 1.5 wt% Ce added Further increase in the Ce content to the melt resulted in an
alloy, the nucleation temperature was found to be mini- increment in nucleation temperature. From the thermal
mum (686.7 °C). A similar kind of decrease in nucleation analysis results, it can be inferred that the Ce addition has

Fig. 5 Effect of Ce addition on cooling curves Fig. 6 Effect of Ce addition on solid fraction

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546 Trans Indian Inst Met (2014) 67(4):541–549

Fig. 7 Microstructures of LM29 alloy with different Ce additions a without Ce b with 0.5 % Ce c with 1 % Ce d with 1.5 % Ce e with 2 % Ce

an influence on the nucleation and growth temperatures of findings of thermal analysis. It was found that the addition
both primary and eutectic silicon. The results showed an of Ce to the melt has resulted in a change in morphology
optimum value at 1.5 wt% Ce indicating simultaneous and refinement/modification of primary/eutectic silicon.
refinement of primary and eutectic silicon at this concen- Figure 7a shows the micrograph of untreated alloy with
tration of Ce. star shaped primary silicon and acicular eutectic silicon. It
To support the above findings, metallographic study was was observed that with the addition of Ce, the morphology
conducted and the microstructures of cerium added alloys of primary silicon transforms from star-like shape to
are shown in Fig. 7. The micrograph also supports the polyhedral shape. The transformation of primary silicon to

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Trans Indian Inst Met (2014) 67(4):541–549 547

Fig. 8 EDAX results of LM29 alloys. a 0.5 % Ce, b 1.0 % Ce, c 1.5 % Ce and d 2.0 % Ce

polyhedral was complete at 1.5 wt% Ce and further (\1.5 wt%). The nucleation temperature of the eutectic
increase in Ce content resulted in irregularly shaped pri- silicon was also suppressed at higher concentration of Ce.
mary silicon as shown in Fig. 7c to e. The measured pri- Faraji et al. [24] reported a similar kind of depression in
mary silicon sizes of LM29 alloys without Ce, 0.5 % Ce, nucleation temperatures with addition of Sr to Al–19 wt%
1 % Ce, 1.5 % Ce and 2.0 % Ce were found to be Si alloy. They reported that the addition of Sr suppressed
1,089 ± 70, 851 ± 80, 581 ± 71, 360 ± 85 and the formation of primary silicon even in the presence of
470 ± 75 lm respectively. The corresponding percentage added P. But Sr additions showed minimum effect on
decrease in primary silicon size with Ce addition is 21, 46, eutectic nucleation temperature. In an earlier study con-
69 and 56 % for 0.5 % Ce, 1 % Ce, 1.5 % Ce and 2.0 % ducted by the authors, Sr addition yielded fibrous coral-like
Ce respectively. Figure 7d, e shows a microstructure with structure of eutectic Si and the primary silicon was trans-
the eutectic modification along with the refinement of formed into a non-faceted structure from a faceted structure
primary silicon. The eutectic silicon was found to be [25]. However, in the present investigation it was found
moderately affected at low concentration of Ce additions that the addition of Ce resulted in polyhedral primary Si.

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548 Trans Indian Inst Met (2014) 67(4):541–549

Fig. 9 XRD pattern of Ce added LM29 alloys

The back scattered scanning electron microscope images

of Ce added alloys shows the presence of Al–Si–Ce ternary
compound. Figure 8 shows the results of EDAX analysis.
The presence of the ternary compound was also confirmed
by X-ray diffraction studies and is shown in Fig. 9.
According to Grobner et al. in an Al–Ce–Si system shown
in Fig. 10 [26, 27], for low concentration of Ce only two
phases u1 [Ce(Si1-xAlx)2] and u2 [AlCeSi2] are thermody-
namically stable. Hence either of these two phases might
have formed and restricted the nucleation and growth of
primary silicon. It is clear from Fig. 7 that the volume
fraction and size of the ternary compound increased with
the increase in Ce. The ternary Ce compounds were found
at the edges of the primary silicon restricting the growth.
The morphology of the ternary compound was observed to
be polyhedral up to 1.5 wt% Ce addition. Further addition Fig. 10 a Al–Ce–Si computed isothermal section [26] b Calculated
Al corner of Al–Ce–Si liquidus surface [27]
resulted in the transformation of Ce compound to needle
like structure. Hence, either of the Ce ternary phases would
be responsible for modification of eutectic silicon and 1.5 wt% Ce added alloy showed the lowest DCP temper-
refinement of primary silicon. In the present investigation ature. The change in DCP temperature by Ce shows the
the primary silicon nucleation temperature decreases up to influence of Ce atoms on eutectic growth during solidifi-
1.5 wt% Ce and correspondingly the primary silicon was cation. According to Wu et al. [28], there is a certain
refined. Further increment in wt% of cerium resulted in a relationship between nucleation of primary silicon and
increase of primary silicon nucleation temperature and a eutectic silicon in P treated hypereutectic Al–Si alloys. It
decrease in the refinement of primary silicon as well. This was reported that the addition of P decreased the activation
confirms the transformation of one form of Ce phase (u1/u2) energy for nucleation of the eutectic leading to the
to another Ce phase with increase in Ce content. The for- microstructure refinement. In the present study, it is clear
mation of needle shaped Ce compound would be due to this that the cerium influences the growth of both primary as
transformation. well as eutectic silicon. The simultaneous refinement and
The effect of Ce addition on DCP temperature of LM29 modification of primary and eutectic silicon would have
alloy is shown in Table 1. It is clear that the Ce has therefore affected the nucleation and growth of a dendrites.
influenced the DCP temperature to a significant extent. The Thus cerium influences the growth of dendrites and hence
DCP temperature decreased with the addition of Ce. The the DCP.

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Trans Indian Inst Met (2014) 67(4):541–549 549

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