Assignment Engineering Materials

(Microstructures of Alloys )

BY :
Mirza Humza Begg
Me131056
Me-4A

ALLOYS OF IRON CARBON (STEEL):

ASTM A470:
An example of a low alloy steel that is used for its hightemperature properties is ASTM A470 turbine rotor steel. These
steels are used in steam turbines for electric power generation
and usually contain combinations of nickel, chromium,
molybdenum, and/or vanadium. The microstructure of ASTM A470
rotor steel consisting of tempered upper bainite is shown in the
figure given below.

AISI/SAE 1040:
The figure given below shows the microstructure of a typical
medium-carbon steel (AISI/SAE 1040) showing ferrite grains
(white etching constituent) and pearlite (dark etching
constituent).

Mechanical properties of medium-carbon steels can be increased

by heat treatment (by austenitizing or quenching & tempering).
The rule of thumb is that 0.30 percent is the lower limit for
hardening steel by heat treatment. However, plain carbon steels
can be hardened only in thin sections with rapid quenching. Often
there is distortion and cracking on quenching. They have poor
impact resistance at low temperatures. To improve heat treating
capabilities alloying elements like Cr, Ni, Mo, etc. are added to
carbon steels and they are called alloy steels.
With 0.45 to 0.75 percent carbon, steels can be challenging to
weld. Preheating, post heating (to control cooling rate), and

sometimes even heating during welding become necessary to

produce acceptable welds and to control the mechanical
properties of the steel after welding.

ALLOYS OF ALUMINUM:
Aluminum 6063:
In the below picture we can observe that in the
microstructure there are numerous amount of grain
boundaries. This tells us that the cracks will easily
propagate and because of this it will not have high tensile
strength but plasticity will be there due to high density.
It can also be seen that there is dislocation because there
are large numbers of dark black lines which tells that at
high temperature the grain will grow and hence easily
form a crack in the structure causing the material to fail.

ALUMINUM ALLOY 7075-T651:

From the picture of 7075 Aluminum alloy we can observe that the
grain size is quite small. That is the reason it has high strength. If
we compare it to 6061 Alloy we can see that these grains are
indeed very small compared to 6061. Also there are very few dark
lines which indicate that dislocation is very minimal but as a
matter of fact it does not have very small grains so it is also not
good for elevated temperatures.

Magnesium Alloys:
MAGNESIUM ALLOY Mg8Li:
Mg8Li alloy reinforced by 7 vol.% SiC particles was processed by
a powder metallurgical method. Samples were deformed in
tension and compression at temperatures from room temperature
up to 300 C. The yield stress as well as the maximum stress
decrease with increasing temperature. Decreasing stresses
detected at temperatures higher than 150 C indicate possible

presence of recovery process. Estimated activation enthalpy is

close to the activation enthalpy for the grain boundary sliding.
Strain rate sensitivity was estimated at elevated temperatures.
Enhanced plasticity was estimated at 300 C. Light and scanning
electron microscopy revealed the cavitation during the high
temperature deformation. Li is soluble in hcp -phase up to
4 wt. %, while Mg alloyed with greater than 12 wt. % Li
has a bcc structure (-phase). Ductility of the hcp -phase
are worse in comparison with the bcc alloys that are very
good machinable and weld able. Disadvantages of Mg-Li
alloys with bcc structure are a high chemical activity and
poor corrosion resistivity. Some compromise would be an
alloy with 8 wt. % of Li (a mixture of phases +) that
might exhibit both improved mechanical properties as well
as a good corrosion resistance. In light micrograph, light
-phase and darker -phase may be visible. The alloys
were produced by pressure infiltration under an argon
pressure (up to 6 MPa) at temperatures of 615-635 K.
Among Mg alloys, magnesium-lithium alloys, as the
lightest metallic materials, are attractive for a large
amount of applications. They are of great importance also
for medicine purposes. The density of Mg-Li alloy
decreases with an increase of lithium content. The
addition of Li increases ductility.

Microstructure of the Mg-Al-Sr alloys(AJ91):

Special industrial applications require improvement of the high
temperature properties. For these elevated temperature
applications, alloys containing rare earth elements have been
developed. New Mg-Al-Sr alloys are being developed with the aim
to find cast alloys with
good creep resistance and good strength and replace expensive
rare earth alloying elements with some cheaper one. Pekguleryuz
[14] reported that Mg-Al-Sr alloys show different microstructures
based on the Sr/Al ratio. For Sr/Al ratio below about 0.3, only Al4Sr
interme
tallic phase is present as the second phase in the structure. When
the Sr/Al ratio is higher, a second intermetallic phase, a new,
ternary Mg-Al-Sr compound, is observed. When the Sr/Al ratio is
very low, there is insufficient amount of Sr to bind all Al atoms
and the excess Al would
form the Mg17Al12 phase. Figure below shows light micrograph of
the squeeze cast AJ51 alloy. The primary Mg grains are
surrounded by the interconnected network of the grain
boundaryphase. This phase is formed during solidification process

and it has lamellar type morphology.The phase (Mg17Al12) is

accompanied with Al4 Sr phase.