ABSTRACT

This project work will study the effect of grain refiners (Ti-B) on grain
refinement of LM25 alloy. Grain refinement is done to reduce the grain size in
order to improve the mechanical properties of any material such as higher
tensile strength, increased ductility and fatigue resistance. It also leads to
reduced or better dispersed porosity in the casting which also lead to
increased leak tightness and reduced surface porosity. These effects can lead
to a net reduction in scrap rate, improved consistency and reliability of
castings. Grain refiners are materials which when added in alloys to aid in
nucleation lead to the production of fine and uniform grain size. Previously
done research has already established that Titanium and Boron are effective
grain refiners. In this project work we have tried to move a step ahead by
taking different weight percentage of grain refiner master alloy of 5% Titanium
and 1% Boron in pure Aluminium matrix. This project work consists of
preparation of four casting samples viz. Standard LM25 alloy, 3% , 5% and 8%
by weight addition of master alloy in LM25. Further, various tests were
conducted on the casted samples to check the effect of grain refiners (Ti-B) on
grain refinement of LM25 alloy. These tests included hardness test, micro
structure observation, tensile test, conductivity test, SEM and EDS analysis and
etc. The central idea behind the undertaking of this project work is to study the
currently used grain refiners and grain refinement methods for LM25 and
hence propose an improved version of grain refinement in LM25 alloy by
varying the proportion of master alloy used for grain refinement. The data
acquired from the experimental work confirmed the anticipated results of
effective grain refinement in LM25 alloy by Ti-B grain refiner.