International Journal of Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials

Volume 25, Number 5, May 2018, Page 554

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-018-1602-y

Effect of Ce addition on microstructures and mechanical properties of

A380 aluminum alloy prepared by squeeze-casting

Xiao-hui Ao1), Shu-ming Xing1), Bai-shui Yu1), and Qing-you Han2)

1) School of Mechanical Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
2) Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Purdue University, Indiana-IN 47907, America
(Received: 10 October 2017; revised: 29 January 2018; accepted: 30 January 2018)

Abstract: The effect of cerium (Ce) addition on the eutectic Si, β-Al5FeSi phase, and the tensile properties of A380 alloy specimens prepared
by squeeze-casting were studied by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The expe-
rimental results showed that Ce more effectively modified the eutectic Si and refined the β-Al5FeSi. The refinement effect significantly in-
creased under a specific pressure of 100 MPa with the addition of Ce from 0.1wt% to 0.9wt%. In contrast, the average length and the aspect
ratio of the eutectic Si and β-Al5FeSi exhibited their optimal values when the content of the added Ce was greater than 0.5wt%. Needle-like
Al8Cu4Ce was precipitated with the addition of excessive Ce; hence, the mechanical properties of A380 gradually decreased with increasing
Ce content in the range from 0.3wt% to 0.9wt%.

Keywords: cerium; eutectic Si; Fe-rich phases; squeeze-casting; mechanical properties

1. Introduction revealed that the modification effect of Ce was not signifi-

The size and morphology of eutectic silicon and iron
(Fe)-rich phases in hypoeutectic Al–Si alloys play a critical
role in determining the alloys’ mechanical properties. The
needle-like β-Al5FeSi phase is considered to exert the most
deleterious effect on the tensile properties, especially elonga-
tion, because it provides potential crack initiation sites [1–2].
Cerium (Ce) modifies the eutectic Si structure and induces a
transition from a coarse flake-like and acicular shape to a
fine fibrous structure and discrete particles with an increas-
ing concentration [3]. However, Mehdi and Malakhov [4]
found that the addition of 0.03wt%–0.2wt% Ce neither
modified the microstructure nor noticeably affected the
grain size of Al–Si alloys. Tsaia et al. [5] reported that the
modification of the microstructure and the mechanical
properties of the A356 alloy were greatly enhanced by add-
ing 1.0wt% Ce. However, no explanation for the claimed Si
particle refinement caused by Ce addition has been provided.
Eutectic silicon was moderately refined by Ce additions, and
the optimum microstructure was obtained at 1.5wt%, which
cant [6]. Elgallad and Doty [7] found that the addition of Ce
to Al–(7–13)Si alloy caused only a partial modification of
the eutectic Si particles.
Refs. [8–9] reported that the addition of modification
elements reduced the crystallization temperature of the
β-Al5FeSi phase. Kores et al. [10] proposed that when Ce
was added to the AlSi12 alloy, an α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 phase
with a morphology that initially resembled a Chinese script
was transformed into a β-Al5FeSi phase in the form of
needles because the AlSiCe phase (Al: 34at%, Si: 40at%, Ce:
26at%) and β-Al5FeSi phases solidified together in the re-
gion that solidified last. Voncina et al. [11] found that Ce
could promote the precipitation of second phases, and the
precipitation was faster when the specimen was cooled fast-
er. The elements Sr, Cr, Mn, and Li are well known to mod-
ify the β-Al5FeSi phase morphology to less harmful forms
when used as additives [12–14]. In addition, the nucleation of
the β-Al5FeSi phase on the γ-Al2O3 particles was metallurgi-
cally observed in 319 alloy by Narayanan et al. [15]. Cao and
Campbell [16] suggested that the wetted outer interfaces of

Corresponding author: Shu-ming Xing E-mail: smxing@bjtu.edu.cn

© University of Science and Technology Beijing and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018
X.H. Ao et al., Effect of Ce addition on microstructures and mechanical properties … 555

oxide films appear to act as preferred substrates for the nuc- 2. Experimental
leation and growth of some Fe-rich phases. Campbell [17]
2.1. Specimen preparation
argued that the β-Al5FeSi phase does not occur as extensive
thin plates when oxide films are deactivated by Sr. These Table 1 lists the chemical compositions of the studied
results showed that some metamorphic elements can reduce A380 Al alloys with Ce additions of 0wt%, 0.1wt%, 0.3wt%,
the number of β-Al5FeSi phases by deactivating the oxide 0.5wt%, 0.7wt%, and 0.9wt% (marked as C0–C9, respec-
film. However, the effects of rare earth Ce on the β-Al5FeSi tively). The experimental alloys without Ce were melted in a
phase have not yet been extensively studied, especially in a graphite crucible at 715°C using a 5 kW electrical resistance
squeeze-casting process. furnace with a capacity of 3 kg. The melt was continuously
The detrimental effect of Fe can be minimized by various monitored with K-type thermocouples (±0.5%). Specifically,
traditional techniques, such as rapid solidification, manga- 2 kg of A380 alloy was loaded into the crucible when the
nese addition, and melt superheating. However, the fast electrical resistance furnace reached its preheating target
cooling technology limits the application of large-sized temperature of 500°C. The preheated Al–15wt%Ce master
castings, and superheating at high temperatures promotes alloy in the form of pieces wrapped in an Al foil was added
hydrogen absorption and increases operational costs. In this into the melt after the alloy was completely melted. The al-
study, a high cooling rate is provided by a squeeze-casting loy was then stirred and maintained at 715°C for 20 min to
process, and a monotonic relationship is observed between ensure the composition homogeneity. The melt was degassed
the cooling rate and the squeeze-casting process. The Ce using 6 g of commercial degasser solid hexachloroethane
addition could further reduce the detrimental effect of Fe by (C2Cl6) to insure a low hydrogen content. The melt surface
squeeze-casting; however, an appropriate Ce concentration was periodically skimmed. The squeezing experiments were
must be determined. performed using a THP16-200A four-column vertical
The A380 alloy is a widely used die-cast Al alloy; hence, squeeze-casting machine. The experiment parameters were a
studying the effect of Ce addition on its microstructure and mould preheating temperature of (250 ± 5)°C, a specific
mechanical properties under high pressures is important. pressure of 100 MPa, a squeeze speed of 0.3 mm/s, and a
This study aims to examine the potential of rare earth Ce as holding time of 30 s. Fig. 1 shows the sampling plan dia-
a modifying agent for simultaneously refining both the eu- gram. All six samples with different Ce contents were cu-
tectic silicon and the β-Al5FeSi phase of the A380 alloy boids with dimensions of 180 mm × 40 mm × 40 mm. Five
prepared by a squeeze-casting process and obtain further in- microscopic specimens and four tensile specimens were cut
sights into the modification mechanism. from each specimen.
Table 1. Chemical composition of the A380 specimens used in the present study wt%
Alloy Marked Si Cu Fe Mn Ce (nominal) Ce (actual) Al
A380 C0 8.333 3.398 0.761 0.049 0 0 Bal.
A380 + 0.1Ce C1 8.115 3.254 0.790 0.047 0.1 0.089 Bal.
A380 + 0.3Ce C3 8.395 3.297 0.853 0.047 0.3 0.287 Bal.
A380 + 0.5Ce C5 7.993 3.167 0.759 0.047 0.5 0.471 Bal.
A380 + 0.7Ce C7 8.196 3.139 0.738 0.048 0.7 0.667 Bal.
A380 + 0.9Ce C9 8.313 3.394 0.813 0.047 0.9 0.864 Bal.

99.5vol% H2O. The sample microstructures were examined

Fig. 1. Sampling plan diagram (unit: mm).
2.2. Test method
The microstructure analysis samples were polished and
etched with a solution of 0.5vol% concentrated HF in
through DM2000 optical microscopy (OM) and ZEISS
EVO18 scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The chemical
composition of the phases was analyzed by X-ray diffraction
(XRD). The tensile specimens were machined according to
standard GB/T2282002 to gauge dimensions of 25 mm
length and 5 mm diameter. The tensile tests were performed
on a Zwick Z100 testing machine at a rate of 2 mm/min.
Two parameters [2] (i.e., mean area (MA) and aspect ra-
tio (AR)) of eutectic Si particles and Fe-rich phases of test-
ing alloys were measured using a digital image analyzer
556
system (Image-Pro Plus 6.0):
1 m 1 n 
MA     Ai 
m j 1  n i 1  j
1 m 1 n  L  
AR      l  
m j 1  n i 1  Ls i 
j with different Ce contents formed using a squeeze-casting
where Ai is the area of a single silicon particle or Fe-rich
phase, μm2; Ll/Ls is the ratio between the longest and short-
est dimensions of a single silicon particle or Fe-rich phase; n
is the number of particles or Fe-rich phases in a single field;
and m is the number of fields. The lower surface of a metal-
lographic specimen was taken as the observation surface
herein, and each observation surface included 10 fields. A
total of 50 fields were measured for each specimen to obtain
Fig. 2. Size and distribution of eutectic Si particles with different Ce contents.
The evaluation of the modification effect with different
amounts of Ce added to the A380 alloy prepared by a
squeeze-casting process was performed using a digital im-
Int. J. Miner. Metall. Mater., Vol. 25, No. 5, May 2018
a convincing group of data.
(1) 3. Results
3.1. Effects of Ce addition on eutectic Si
(2) Fig. 2 shows the optical micrographs of the A380 alloys
process with a specific pressure of 100 MPa. The micro-
structures of these samples all consisted of white primary
α-Al, black eutectic Si, and grey Fe-rich phases. The prima-
ry α-Al and grey Fe-rich phases were finer and more uni-
form in samples with added Ce. The eutectic Si was mod-
ified from a coarse platelet-like or needle-like structure to a
fine fibrous structure and the dispersion of eutectic Si par-
ticles was also increased with increasing Ce content.
age analyzer system. Table 2 provides the quantitative re-
sults. The mean area, average length, and aspect ratio of the
eutectic Si were measured by image analysis. With the Ce
X.H. Ao et al., Effect of Ce addition on microstructures and mechanical properties … 557

addition at contents ranging from 0.1wt% to 0.9wt%, the Refs. [4–7] reported that Ce weakly modified the eutectic
mean area of the eutectic Si dramatically increased from Si when the Ce content was less than 0.5wt%. However, the
15.31 to 43.29 μm2. The mean area of the eutectic Si in the eutectic Si was well modified with the addition of 0.5wt% Ce.
non-modified alloy C0 was 17.94 μm2, and was between Moreover, the modification effect was no longer enhanced in
those of alloys C1 and C3. The average observed length of the Ce content range from 0.5wt% to 0.9wt% Ce in the
the Si particles decreased from 22.66 μm for C1 to 9.69 μm present experiments, demonstrating that squeeze-casting
for C9 in the Ce-modified alloys, which were lower than the played a substantial role in promoting the modification ef-
observed length of 24.83 μm in the non-modified specimens. fect in the specimens with a low Ce concentration.
The aspect ratio of the eutectic Si decreased from 7.62 for C0
3.2. Effects of Ce addition on the Fe-rich phases
to 3.18 for C5. It was also observed that the aspect ratio of the
eutectic Si remained constant with further Ce addition. The solubility of Fe in solid Al was very low (i.e., ap-
Table 2. Eutectic silicon particle characteristics of the inves-
proximately 0.04wt% at 625°C); therefore, Fe formed in-
tigated alloys termetallic phases. The presence of Fe in the A380 Al alloy
led to the formation of two major intermetallic compounds:
Alloy Mean area / μm2 Average length / μm Aspect ratio
α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 and β-Al5FeSi [18]. β-Al5FeSi was the
C0 17.94 24.82 7.62
C1 15.31 22.66 7.65 dominant phase in the cast microstructure of the A380 alloys
C3 21.82 13.42 4.56 and particularly deleterious to the alloys’ mechanical prop-
C5 26.53 10.87 3.18 erties. In contrast, instead of β-Al5FeSi, α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2
C7 40.86 9.63 3.23 improved the castability and ductility of the A380 alloy. Figs.
C9 43.29 9.69 3.19 3(a) and 3(b) show the microstructure examined using

Fig. 3. Backscattered electron images showing the intermetallic of the alloys investigated: (a) C0 and (b) C3; EDS area scans of Fe:
(c) C0 and (d) C3; EDS point scans of iron-rich intermetallic: (e) spot 1 and (f) spot 2.
558
backscattered electron (BSE) imaging. The needle- and
Chinese character-like intermetallics were both present in
the investigated alloys. Energy-dispersive area scans of Fe
were performed to further identify these intermetallics (Figs.
3(c) and 3(d)). Figs. 3(e) and 3(f) depict the point analyses
of spots 1 and 2 performed to determine the chemical com-
position of the intermetallics.
Fig. 4. Backscattered electron images of the iron-rich intermetallic with different Ce contents: (a) C0; (b) C1; (c) C3; (d) C5; (e) C7;
(f) C9.
Fig. 4(a) clearly shows that the β-Al5FeSi phase of the
unmodified alloy exhibited a coarse needle-like morphology.
The average length of this phase was 51 μm. The average
length of this phase was reduced to 21 μm when the content
of added Ce was increased to 0.9wt% (Fig. 4(f)). Thus, the
average size of the β-Al5FeSi phase was decreased by 58%,
and the particle distribution became more uniform. The siz-
es of the β-Al5FeSi monotonically decreased with increasing
Ce addition. This trend was clearly observed in the image
Int. J. Miner. Metall. Mater., Vol. 25, No. 5, May 2018
Fig. 4 presents the typical Fe-rich intermetallic of the A380
alloys with various Ce contents. The coarse needle-like
β-Al5FeSi was modified into fine particles, and the volume
fraction of the β-Al5FeSi phase decreased when Ce was added
to the alloy. Moreover, the addition of an appropriate amount of
Ce (approximately 0.3wt%) markedly enhanced the volume
fraction of the Chinese character-like α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 phase.
analysis results in Fig. 5. The variational principle of the av-
erage length of the β-Al5FeSi phase with an increasing Ce
content in a squeeze-casting process at a specific pressure of
100 MPa is expressed as follows:
Lβ  29.85exp  c / 0.41  17.81 (3)
where Lβ is the average length of the β-Al5FeSi, μm; and c is
the Ce content, wt%. The goodness of fit was R2 = 97.56.
The observed aspect ratios of the β-Al5FeSi phase were
X.H. Ao et al., Effect of Ce addition on microstructures and mechanical properties …
lower in the Ce-modified alloys than the non-modified ones
(8.7). The minimal aspect ratio was 2.2 for the alloys with
0.7wt% or 0.9wt% Ce. Thus, Ce could substantially de-
crease the aspect ratio of the β-Al5FeSi particles, and the
ability to modify β-Al5FeSi was maximal when the speci-
mens with greater than 0.7wt% were subjected to a specific
pressure of 100 MPa during the squeeze-casting process.
The variational principle of the aspect ratio of the β-Al5FeSi
phase with the increasing Ce content is expressed as fol-
lows:
Ar-β  6.55exp   c / 0.27   1.88 (4)
where Ar-β is the aspect ratio of the β-Al5FeSi phase; c is the
Ce content, wt%; and the goodness of fit is R2 = 97.97%.
Fig. 5. Characteristics of β-Al5FeSi with increasing Ce addi-
tion.
Fig. 6 shows the volume fraction analysis results for the
α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 and β-Al5FeSi phases. Ce could slightly
decrease the volume fraction of β-Al5FeSi. The volume
fraction of the detrimental β-Al5FeSi phase of the investi-
gated alloys without Ce was approximately 3.85%. This
value gradually decreased to 3.17% upon the addition of
0.7wt% Ce. An interesting change in the volume fraction of
α-intermetallics with the Chinese script morphology was
Fig. 6. Volume fraction variations of α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 and
β-Al5FeSi with increasing Ce addition.
559
observed. The volume fraction of α-intermetallics tended to
increase when the added Ce concentration was less than
0.3wt%. However, the volume fraction of α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2
was greatly reduced from 0.39% to approximately 0.01% as
the Ce content increased from 0.3wt% to 0.9wt%. That is,
α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 was almost fully dissolved.
3.3. Analysis of mechanical properties
The acicular-shaped eutectic silicon and β-Al5FeSi were
damaging to mechanical properties, especially ductility, be-
cause they acted as crack initiators. After the Ce addition,
cracks no longer easily grew along the interface between the
eutectic Si and the Al matrix, which resulted in a dramatic
increase in ductility. Fig. 7 shows the typical ultimate tensile
strength (UTS) and elongation (El) with different Ce con-
tents. The results demonstrated that the Ce addition strongly
influenced the mechanical behavior. The UTS and the El in
the nonmodified alloy (C0) were 214 MPa and 1.61%, re-
spectively. The UTS was enhanced to 254 MPa, while the El
increased to 2.75% after the addition of 0.3wt% Ce. A fur-
ther increase in the content of the added Ce to 0.9wt% led to
decreases of the UTS and El to 222 MPa and 1.52%, respec-
tively.
Fig. 7. Mechanical properties of the A380 alloy with increas-
ing Ce addition.
4. Discussion
A high cooling rate was provided by a specific pressure of
100 MPa during the squeeze-casting process. Nonequilibrium
solidification was also more easily achieved. According to
Eq. (5), the amount of modifier atoms that attached to the
eutectic Si at the front of the solid–liquid interface increased
with the increasing grain growth rate because of the greater
cooling degree.
    0 /  0  1   0  exp  v / vd  (5)
where κ* is the actual distribution coefficient; κ0 is the ba-
560
lanced distribution coefficient; v is the growth rate; and vd is
a characteristic growth constant.
The increase in the grain growth rate led to an increase in
the distribution coefficient κ*, which increased the solute
concentration in the solid–liquid interface. More Ce atoms
entered the solid–liquid interface of the eutectic Si to pro-
mote the generation of twins, which changed the morphol-
ogy of the eutectic silicon to fibrous according to adsorb-
ing–twinning theory [19]. Ce-rich compounds likely formed
when the Ce content exceeded 0.3wt%, thereby limiting the
number of Ce atoms available to modify the eutectic silicon.
In the squeeze-casting process, the gap between the cast-
ing and the mould was eliminated under the applied pressure,
and the interface heat transfer coefficient improved, which
caused the cooling rate of the alloy to increase [20]. The
diffusion of the Fe atoms became more difficult at a higher
cooling rate, suppressing the formation of the β-Al5FeSi
phase and promoting the formation of the α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2
phase [21]. The aggregation of Ce atoms increased constitu-
tional undercooling during the solidification process, which
increased the solute concentration and led to the refinement
of the β-Al5FeSi phase. In addition, the Ce addition poi-
soned some nucleation sites in the areas of some oxide films,
which reduced the number of sites available for the nuclea-
tion of the β-Al5FeSi phase and decreased the β-Al5FeSi
nucleation temperature, which was beneficial to the refine-
Table 3. Reactions in the Al–Si–Fe balance solidification process
No. Reaction
1 L → α-Al
2 L → α-Al + FeAl3
3 L + FeAl3 → α-Al + α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2
4 L + α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 → α-Al + β-Al5FeSi
5 L → α-Al + Si + β-Al5FeSi
6 L → α-Al + Si
The high cooling rate under a specific pressure of 100
MPa not only suppressed the precipitation of the β-Al5FeSi
phase, but also converted β-Al5FeSi into α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2
during the squeeze-casting process [25]. Ji et al. [26] re-
ported that the Fe-rich intermetallic phase formed in the shot
sleeve exhibited a coarse compact morphology, whereas
those formed in the die cavity exhibited fine compact par-
ticles in the Al–Mg–Si–Mn alloys. Yu et al. [27] reported
that the size of the needle-like β-Al5FeSi phase substantially
decreased, and a few α-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 phases with Chinese
character-like morphologies were observed in the A380 al-
loy when the squeeze pressure was increased from 0 to 75
MPa in the squeeze-casting process. Therefore, an appropri-
Int. J. Miner. Metall. Mater., Vol. 25, No. 5, May 2018
ment of the β-Al5FeSi needles [16,22].
With respect to the cooling rate effect, Narayanan et al. [15]
demonstrated that the precipitation of β-Al5FeSi approached
the Al–Si eutectic reaction as the cooling rate increased.
According to the reactions in the Al–Si–Fe ternary balance
solidification process [23] in Table 3, the approaches availa-
ble to suppress the β-Al5FeSi phase precipitation are to de-
crease the nucleation temperature of β-Al5FeSi in reaction 4,
increase the temperature of reaction 6, and shorten the time
between them, that is, increase the cooling rate. The change
laws of the Al–Si eutectic temperature with pressure can be
explained by the Clapeyron equation as follows [24]:
T ΔV
Tp   m P (6)
ΔH m
where ∆Tp is the metal equilibrium temperature difference,
K; Tm is the metal equilibrium temperature under standard
pressure, K; ∆V is the volume changes per unit mass, m3/kg;
∆Hm is the latent heat of Al–Si crystallization, kJ/kg; and ∆P
is the specific pressure difference, kPa.
The related parameters are Tm = 850.2 K, ∆V = 18.5 ×
10 m3/kg, ∆Hm = 396 kJ/kg, and ∆P = 1.0 × 105 kPa. Be-
−6
cause the calculation result is ∆Tp = 3.97 K and the actual
undercooling is less than 1 K, the Al–Si eutectic temperature
of reaction 6 is improved, which suppresses the β-Al5FeSi
precipitation in reaction 5 and causes the β-Al5FeSi be sub-
stantially refined.
Temperature / °C
Depending on the melt composition

629
611
578
577
ate amount of Ce and an appropriate pressure can simulta-
neously promote the refinement of the β-Al5FeSi phase.
The EDS analysis results obtained in conjunction with
the SEM image showed that Cu and Ce were concentrated
in the same area (Figs. 8(b) and 8(c)). Fig. 8(d) shows the
point scans corresponding to spot 3, which indicated that this
phase is rich in Al, Cu, and Ce that exhibited an atomic ratio
of nearly 8:4:1. The Al8Cu4Ce phase was similar to that ob-
served in the previous studies on the 2519 Al alloy [28–29].
The rare-earth Ce had a very low solid solubility (less than
0.1%) in the Al matrix even at the eutectic temperature [30].
Hence, most of the excess Ce atoms above the solution limit
combined with Al and Cu to form Al8Cu4Ce during solidifi-
X.H. Ao et al., Effect of Ce addition on microstructures and mechanical properties …
cation. The Al8Cu4Ce phase was difficult to dissolve at ele-
vated temperatures. The Al8Cu4Ce precipitates were nee-
dle-like; thus, they adversely affected the mechanical prop-
Fig. 8. (a) Backscattered electron image of the C9 alloy, (b) Cu element distribution, (c) Ce element distribution, and (d) EDS point
scans of spot 3.
Fig. 9 shows the XRD patterns of the six alloys. The α-Al
matrix, eutectic Si phase, Al2Cu phase, and Fe-rich phases
coexist in these alloys. In comparison with the Ce-free alloy
(C0) and the alloys with low Ce concentrations (i.e., C1, C3,
and C5), a new phase Al8Cu4Ce was found in the alloys with
high Ce concentrations (C7 and C9).
Fig. 9. XRD patterns of the tested alloys with different Ce
additions.
The improvement of the modification effect on the eutec-
tic Si and the refinement of β-Al5FeSi were both beneficial
561
erties, especially the thermal stability, of the corresponding
alloys. In addition, the aforementioned phase constitution
suggested that Cu and Ce atoms have a chemical affinity.
to the mechanical properties, especially the elongation, of
the Al alloys. In these experiments, the beneficial effect on
the eutectic Si and β-Al5FeSi increased with the increasing
Ce addition, leading to a gradual increase in the mechanical
properties. However, the elongation reached its maximal
value with 0.3wt% Ce addition. This result was attributed to
the needle-like Al8Cu4Ce, which was precipitated in the
A380 alloys with higher Ce contents, functioning as a crack
initiator that reduced the elongation of the tested alloy.
In summary, the increasing Ce addition had a refinement
effect on the eutectic Si and β-Al5FeSi, which improved the
elongation at low Ce contents. The refinement effect on the
eutectic Si and β-Al5FeSi slightly increased when the Ce
content was excessive. The Ce compound also formed and
gradually increased. Therefore, the alloy elongation showed
a trend of first increasing and then decreasing with increas-
ing Ce content (Fig. 7).
5. Conclusions
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Ce
on the eutectic Si, Fe-rich phase, and the mechanical proper-
562
ties of the A380 Al alloy prepared by a squeeze-casting
process. The results are summarized as follows:
(1) (1) Ce was an effective modifying agent for the eu-
tectic Si of A380 under a specific pressure of 100 MPa
when the Ce content was 0.1wt%–0.5wt%. The modifica-
tion effect was no longer improved when the added Ce con-
tent was greater than 0.5wt%.
(2) The Ce addition effectively shortened the length of
the needle-like β-Al5FeSi phases from 51 μm to 21 μm and
modified the aspect ratio of β-Al5FeSi from 8.7 to 2.2 with
the addition of Ce at contents ranging from 0wt% to 0.9wt%.
The volume fraction of β-Al5FeSi decreased with increasing
Ce content and reached a minimum of 3.17% in the alloy
with 0.7wt% Ce.
(3) The refinement effect on the eutectic Si and
β-Al5FeSi slightly increased when the Ce content was more
than 0.5wt%. The needle-like Al8Cu4Ce formed and gradu-
ally increased, which reduced the elongation of the tested
alloy.
(4) The UTS and the El first increased to 254 MPa and
2.75%, respectively, with the addition of 0.3wt% Ce, and
then decreased to 222 MPa and 1.52%, respectively, with a
further increase in Ce addition to 0.9wt%.
Acknowledgement
This work is financially supported by the International
Science and Technology Cooperation Program of China (No.
2014DFA53050).
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