3D Microstructure characterization of porous cast Mg alloys
EMSL Project ID
46702
Abstract
The objective of this study is to characterize 3D microstructure of porous cast Magnesium (Mg) alloys. Mg alloy is a strategic light weight structural material used in automobile industry, aerospace industry, sporting entertainment and other industry. We are studying 3D microstructure of cast magnesium alloys, which play an important role in property prediction and processing optimization [5-6]. From our previous study, 3D microstructure is very important in porous materials. The connectivity and spatial distribution obtained from 3D may be quite different from the assumption of 2D projection. X-ray tomography we are applying is an ideal instrumentation in investigating 3D microstructure of the cast Mg alloys we are studying. X-ray tomography used in this study has the resolution of 10 to 20 mm. The pore size of cast Mg alloys is the range of 10mm to 500mm. In the point of view of mechanical properties, large pore is dominant in the ductility study. Further study will be focused on microstructure of different cast Mg alloys fabricated under different casting condition. Combining the microstructure study using CT and SEM, we will reach a very large domain with high resolution structure information, which will be used in a high fidelity prediction of ductility. Experimental work on mechanical property will be compared with simulation results based on synthetic microstructure and characterized microstructure from CT.
Project Details
Project type
Limited Scope
Start Date
2011-12-14
End Date
2012-02-13
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator