Abstract
A two-stage thermodynamic calculation procedure was developed to analyse alloy compositions for rheocasting. Based on Kazakov's criteria, the processability of AZ91, AZ61 and AM60B for rheocasting was investigated. The results show that these alloys do not satisfy selected criteria fully, and only AZ91 is possible to be used for rheocasting with semisolid slurry having lower fraction solid (0.2–0.4). In microstructure produced by rheocasting, the β-Mg17Al12 phase forms continuous network along primary α-Mg gain boundary and is concentrated in this limited contiguous space. The routes to modify and optimise alloy composition were proposed.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 50804023), the Luodi Research Plan of Jiangxi Educational Department (grant no. KJLD14016), the Nature Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (grant no. 20122BAB206021) and the Jiangxi Province Young Scientists Cultivating Programs (grant no. 20122BCB23001). Partial support came from the China Scholarship Council (CSC).