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  • Aging- and creep-resistance...
    Ng, Daniel S.; Dunand, David C.

    Materials science & engineering. A, Structural materials : properties, microstructure and processing, 06/2020, Volume: 786
    Journal Article

    A ternary Al-6.9Ce-9.3Mg (wt.%) hypoeutectic alloy, consisting of equal amounts of α-Al(Mg) solid-solution regions and Al(Mg)-Al11Ce3 eutectic colonies, is investigated in terms of its aging and creep resistance. The eutectic regions exhibit a microhardness of 1230 MPa, which is thrice the value of Al-Al11Ce3 eutectic regions in a binary Al-12.5Ce (wt.%) near-eutectic alloy, demonstrating that Mg in solid-solution enhances the strengthening provided by the micron-scale highly-branched Al11Ce3 phase. X-ray diffraction measurements during ambient-temperature tensile testing reveal that load is being transferred from the Al(Mg) matrix to the Al11Ce3 phase, confirming that the fine eutectic microstructure displays composite strengthening in addition to the expected precipitation- and solid-solution strengthening. The hardness remains effectively unchanged after aging at 450 °C for up to 8 weeks, indicating excellent coarsening resistance of the Al11Ce3 phase. The ternary alloy exhibits creep resistance at 300 °C slightly inferior to the near-fully eutectic binary Al-12.5Ce (wt.%) alloy, consistent with the presence of large regions of fast-creeping primary Al(Mg) solid-solution matrix between the strong Al(Mg)-Al11Ce3 eutectic colonies in the hypoeutectic ternary alloy.