Effect of zirconium addition on the grain size and mechanical behavior of aluminum grain refined by titanium plus boron (Ti+B) in the as cast and cold extruded conditions

Aluminum and its alloys are the second most commonly used metal for a variety of industrial applications. They normally solidify in coarse grain columnar structure which tends to reduce their mechanical behavior and surface quality. It was found that this large grain size structure can be refined by using titanium, Ti, or titanium plus boron, Ti+B, and using the latter resulted in reducing the amount of Ti to fifth its values although boron itself is not a grain refiner. This is why it is becoming customary in the aluminum foundry to add Ti or Ti+B to their melt before solidification. The available literature reveals that most of the work is directed towards the metallurgical aspects and little was directed on the mechanical aspects. To the best of the authors knowledge, no work was directed on the aspects of grain refiners on the formability of metals. In this paper, the effect of addition of Zr on the mechanical properties of commercially pure aluminum grain refined by Ti+B in the as cast and extruded conditions is investigated. Comparison between the addition of Zr alone or Zr+Ti+B is also investigated. It was found that addition of Ti+B either alone or in the presence of Zr resulted in grain refinement of aluminum both in the as cast and in the cold extruded conditions. The maximum reduction in grain size was 53.22% and 76.92%, respectively. Similarly, it was found that addition of Ti+B either alone or in the presence of Zr to Al resulted in improvement of its Vickers's hardness, However addition of Zr alone to Al resulted in decrease of its hardness in the as cast conditions but increase in the extruded condition .The maximum increase was in the case of adding both of them in the extruded condition being 94.59 %, (from Hv 37 to Hv72). Similarly the ultimate tensile strength, UTS, was improved at all additions except when Ti+B or Zr is added alone. On the whole it may be concluded that addition of Zr to Al grain refined by Ti+B resulted in enhancement of its grain size and improvement of its hardness, mechanical strength and ductility in the cold extruded conditions and resulted in slight decrease of its ductility when added in the as cast condition. (author)