Grain Refinement of CuNi10Fe1Mn Alloy by SiC Nanoparticles and Electromagnetic Stirring

Abstract

The CuNi10Fe1Mn alloy is refined remarkably by compound effects of trace amount modified SiC nanoparticles coupled with electromagnetic stirring (EMS) that the original inhomogeneous coarse equiaxed and columnar crystal macrostructure develops into homogeneous refined equiaxed crystal macrostructure, also a fine equiaxed microstructure is achieved. The smallest grain size is obtained when the addition of modified SiC nanoparticles is 0.05% and the current of EMS is 120 A. The grain size decreases from 2.15 mm to 0.52 mm, and the impact power is increased about 38.8% compared to that without modified SiC nanoparticles and EMS. Crystallographic analysis of copper and 6H-SiC is carried out by the edge-to-edge model. The smallest planar disregistry between copper and 6H-SiC is about 2.54% that the modified SiC nanoparticles are effective grain refiner for copper. The modified SiC nanoparticles serve as heterogeneous nucleation sites directly for CuNi10Fe1Mn alloy proved by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis.

Keywords:

• CuNi10Fe1Mn
• Electromagnetic
• Nucleation
• Refinement
• SiC

Notes

Note: d, the thickness of the equiaxed grains zone at the traverse cross-section; P, the proportion of the equiaxed grains zone at the traverse cross-section.