Materials Science and Engineering A241 (1998) 72 82

The fracture mode in AlSiMg casting alloys

Q.G. Wang, C.H. Ca ceres *
CRC for Alloy and Solidication Technology (CAST), Department of Mining, Minerals and Materials Engineering, The Uni6ersity of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia Received 13 January 1997; received in revised form 4 June 1997

Abstract Samples of commercial Al7Si0.4/0.7MgT6 casting alloys deformed to fracture were anodised to reveal the grain boundaries and the proportion of transgranular/intergranular fracture was determined. The number and area fraction of Si particles cracked on cell and grain boundaries was also determined. Samples of unmodied and Sr-modied alloy, with magnesium contents of 0.4 and 0.7% and dendrite arm spacings (DAS) between 17 and 65 mm were used for the study. Cracking of the Si particles in samples with small DAS occurs preferentially on grain boundaries and the fracture path is predominantly intergranular, while in samples with large DAS, particle cracking concentrates on the cell boundaries and the fracture mode is transgranular, along the cell boundaries. The relation between the fracture mode and the tensile ductility of the alloys is discussed. 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.
Keywords: Al Mg Si casting alloys; Dendrite arm spacing; Intergranular fracture; Si particles cracking; Tensile ductility; Transgranular fracture

1. Introduction The failure of Al 7Si Mg alloys is generally accepted to occur in three stages [1 8]: (1) silicon particle cracking at low plastic strains (1 2%); (2) as deformation proceeds, cracked particles generate localised shear bands which form microcracks by joining adjacent cracked particles; and (3) microcracks coalescence followed by propagation, leading to nal fracture. Different authors, however, differ in the identication of the fracture path. Frederick and Bailey [3] observed that the fracture in Al Si Mg casting alloys occurs almost exclusively along dendrite cell boundaries, which suggests a transgranular fracture path. Voigt and Bye [9] observed that the crack path in A356.0 alloys sometimes follows the grain boundaries but concluded that, in general, crack propagation occurred following the cell boundaries, again suggesting a predominantly transgranular fracture. On the other hand, Fat-Halla [10] found that fracture follows an intergranular path in rapidly soli-

* Corresponding author. Fax: + 61 7 33653888; e-mail: carlos@minmet.uq.oz.au 0921-5093/98/$19.00 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved. PII S 0 9 2 1 - 5 0 9 3 ( 9 7 ) 0 0 4 7 6 - 0

died Sr-modied A356 alloy, while slowly solidied sand cast alloys show a tendency towards transgranular fracture. Surappa et al. [6] observed cracking of Si and Fe-rich particles and microcrack formation along the interdendritic channels in sand and die cast Sr-modied Al7%Si0.3%Mg alloy, although they noted a much faster cracking of particles with strain, and lower ductility, in the sand cast samples. Coade et al. [4] reported an intergranular fracture mode in Sr-modied Al7%Si0.4% alloy with small dendrite cell size. In a more recent study in a similar alloy, Ca ceres et al. [7] observed that the fracture path is transgranular in large dendrite cell size material but becomes intergranular in small cell size material. The present work was carried out to study the fracture mode in tensile samples with different dendrite cell sizes and eutectic Si particle size and morphology. Tensile samples deformed to fracture were anodised to reveal the grain structures and the ratio of fracture path length along grain boundaries to the length along cell boundaries was determined. The fraction of Si particles cracked on either cell or grain boundaries was also determined for each sample. This work complements earlier studies of the mechanical behaviour of these alloys published elsewhere [7,11].

Q.G. Wang, C.H. Ca ceres / Materials Science and Engineering A241 (1998) 7282 Table 1 Chemical compositions of the studied alloys (wt.%) Alloy Unmodied AA601 Sr-modied AA601 Unmodied AA603 Sr-modied AA603 Si 7.2 7.5 6.9 7.0 Mg 0.39 0.41 0.70 0.70 Fe 0.21 0.22 0.10 0.10 Sr B0.001 0.025 B0.001 0.025 Ti 0.13 0.13 0.09 0.09 Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Zn, Zr B0.01 B0.01 B0.01 B0.01

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2. Experimental procedure Commercial unmodied Al 7%Si 0.4/0.7%Mg alloys (alloys AA601 and AA603, Australian denomination equivalent to the US A356.0 and A357.0, respectively) were used in this study. Modication was achieved by adding an Al 10%Sr master alloy to the unmodied melt just prior to degassing. The chemical compositions of the alloys are shown in Table 1. Plates were cast in resin-bonded silica sand moulds with a large tapered chill at one end and a large riser at the other to produce quasi-directional solidication. The freezing rate varied from about 12C s 1 near the chill to 0.2C s 1 at the riser end. The cast plates were sectioned into (15 15 50 mm3) bars. The bars were hot isostatically pressed (HIPed) at 540C and 100 MPa for 2 h to eliminate porosity and then solution heat treated at 540C for 18 h, quenched in water at room temperature, pre-aged at room temperature for 20 h and aged at 170C for 6 h in a salt bath. The bars were then machined into at tensile specimens of cross-section 5 4 mm2 and gauge length 15 mm. Tensile tests were conducted at 1 mm min 1, and strains measured with an extensometer. More detailed descriptions of the casting and tensile testing procedure have been published elsewhere [7,11]. In order to study the interaction between silicon particles and plastic ow during deformation, a number of tensile specimens had a face metallographically polished prior to deformation. After a predetermined strain (usually between 1 and 3%), the samples were observed under an optical microscope using Nomarski interference contrast to reveal the slip bands. The two halves of selected fractured tensile samples were mounted together after carefully matching the fracture surfaces and ground to remove about half the thickness. Final polish was done with a commercial SiO2 slurry (Struers OP-U). Subsequently, the samples were anodised at 30 V and a current density of 1.6 mA mm 2 for 30 s in a 2% solution of uoroboric acid to reveal the grain structure [12]. The anodised samples were then observed in an optical microscope under polarised light. The grain size was measured by linear intercept and the relative proportion of intergranular to transgranular fracture was determined by measuring the length of the fracture path along the grain boundaries and across the grains.

Quantitative metallography was carried out using a Quantimet image analyser (Cambridge Instrument, Model 570). The as-cast dendrite arm spacing (DAS) was measured in samples obtained from different locations in the cast plates, by counting and measuring small groups of well dened dendritic cells [1315]. The fraction of cracked Si particles on grain and dendrite cell boundaries was determined on polished and anodised sections of fractured samples by counting and measuring all the Si particles as well as the cracked Si particles in a given eld of view. To determine whether the strain concentration during nal fracture resulted in a different pattern of particle cracking, measurements made close to the fracture surface (within 1 mm) were compared with measurements done some 6 mm away. Between 2000 and 3000 particles were counted and measured over some 50 elds of view in each location. Occasionally Fe-rich intermetallic particles were found in the dendritic boundaries, especially in the higher Mg alloys, but no distinctions between the particles were made. Several samples were also deep etched in a 5% solution of perchloric acid in ethanol at 10 V and 2 mA mm 2 for 20 min to dissolve the aluminium matrix and reveal the eutectic Si structure for observation on a scanning electron microscope.

3. Results

3.1. Anodised samples

Figs. 1 and 2 show some examples of anodised samples and the corresponding fracture paths in unmodied and Sr-modied alloys, respectively. Inspection of the grain structure in the fracture region indicated that in material with large DAS, fracture occurs along the dendritic cell boundaries, in a transgranular manner, while for small DAS material the nal fracture tends to occur along grain boundaries. The grain size was independent of composition, and varied from 0.8 mm for the faster cooling rate to about 1.2 mm for the lowest cooling rate. This small effect of cooling rate is to be expected for alloys which contain a grain rener [16].

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Fig. 1. Anodised longitudinal sections of fractured samples showing the grains structure and the fracture path (indicated by the arrows) in unmodied alloys. The gures in square brackets indicate the proportion of intergranular fracture. (a) AA601, DAS: 52 mm [0%]; (b) AA603, DAS: 27 mm [19%]; and (c) AA601, DAS: 25 mm [57%]. The character of the fracture path is indicated on top of each micrograph. IG, intergranular; TG, transgranular.

The proportion of intergranular fracture in various microstructures is shown in Figs. 3 and 4 as a function of the DAS for unmodied and Sr-modied alloys, together with the elongation to fracture (the elongation data have been taken from Ref. [11]). Plotted values are the average of two or three samples. It can be seen that the proportion of intergranular fracture increases from near zero for large DAS to about 60% for small DAS. It can also be seen that for both, unmodied and Sr-modied alloys, the ductility increases when the fracture mode changes from transgranular to intergranular. Note that in the Sr-modied alloys, the change in the fracture mode (and the increase in ductility) takes place at a larger DAS (50 mm) than with the unmodied alloys (30 mm). On the other hand, it can be seen that although a higher Mg content lowers the ductility [11], it does not affect the DAS at which the change in fracture mode occurs.

3.2. Deep etched samples and Nomarski interference contrast experiments

Figs. 5 and 6 show the structure of the dendritic cell boundaries after deep etching the matrix (unmodied alloy). In large cell size material (Fig. 5), the cell boundaries are well dened by a high density of Si particles, while in the ner cell size structure (Fig. 6), the small and widely spaced Si particles barely dene the interdendritic boundaries. The structure of the cell boundaries determines the degree of interaction with the plastic deformation. This can be appreciated by comparing Figs. 5 and 6 with the Nomarski interference contrast micrographs shown in Figs. 7 and 8. In samples with large DAS (Fig. 7), it is seen that although the slip trace is the same for all cells in a given grain, the slip bands are interrupted by the cell boundaries. The effective slip distance is determined by the size of the dendritic cells, suggesting that the

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Fig. 2. Anodised longitudinal sections of fractured samples showing the grains structure and the fracture path (indicated by the arrows) in Sr-modied alloys. The gures in square brackets indicate the proportion of intergranular fracture. (a) AA601, DAS: 52 mm [0%]; (b) AA603, DAS: 45 mm [51%]; and (c) AA601, DAS: 25 mm [58%]. The character of the fracture path is indicated on top of each micrograph. IG, intergranular; TG, transgranular.

dendritic cell walls behave like grain boundaries [7]. In contrast, in samples with small DAS (Fig. 8), the rather open cell boundaries do not interrupt the slip bands, which are now much longer than the dendritic cells. The Si particles interact with the slip bands individually rather than collectively as in the case of distinct cell boundaries. The most signicant obstacle to the slip bands in ne DAS material are the grain boundaries, as illustrated by Fig. 8 as well. Thus, the interaction between the dendrite cell walls and plastic strain depends on the size of the dendritic cells, and this leads to different distributions of cracked silicon particles in large and small DAS materials. This will be shown next.

3.3. Distribution of cracked silicon particles

The results of counting and measuring the cracked silicon particles on both grain and cell boundaries are shown in Table 2. For clarity, the data collected at 1 mm from the fracture surface have also been plotted in Figs. 9 and 10. It can be seen that in samples with large DAS, particle cracking takes place preferentially on the cell boundaries. In contrast, in samples with small DAS the particles tend to crack preferentially along grain boundaries. The measurements near (1 mm) and far from (6 mm) the fracture surface yielded equivalent results. Note that the crossing of the lines in Figs. 9 and 10 occurs at a DAS of about 30 and

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48 mm, respectively, results expected from Figs. 3 and 4.

4. Discussion

4.1. The interaction between grain and dendrite boundaries with plastic deformation
The structure of the cell boundaries shown by Figs. 5 and 6 suggests that the fracture path is determined by the relative continuity of the dendritic cells boundaries. Thus, a straightforward topological interpretation of the present results is as follows: in large DAS material, the cell boundaries are well dened by a dense array of Si particles and thereby provide an easy path for the propagation of cracks, leading to an intercellular (transgranular) type of fracture. Conversely, the lack of continuity of the cell boundaries in material with small DAS makes transgranular fracture more difcult. Fracture then occurs along the grain boundaries which offer an alternative continuous path (see Appendix A for a discussion in geometrical terms). However, the results in Table 2 show that when fracture is intergranular, preferential cracking along grain boundaries occurs prior to the actual nal fracture event. Similarly, when the fracture follows a transgran-

Fig. 4. The proportion of intergranular fracture and the tensile ductility as a function of the DAS for the Sr-modied alloys. Elongation data from Ref. [11].

ular path, preferential cracking of particles is observed on cell boundaries prior to nal fracture. Therefore, an explanation for the difference in fracture path must also account for the differences in preferential cracking in the rst place. If the differences in the interaction between slip bands and cell and grain boundaries shown in Figs. 7 and 8 are taken into account, the process leading to the different fracture paths can be rationalised in the following way.

Fig. 3. The proportion of intergranular fracture and the tensile ductility as a function of the DAS for the unmodied alloys. Elongation data from Ref. [11].

Fig. 5. Deep etched sample showing the structure of the dendritic cell boundaries in a sample with large DAS (40 mm). Alloy AA603, unmodied.

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Fig. 6. Deep etched sample showing the structure of the dendritic cell boundaries in a sample with small DAS (17 mm). Alloy AA603, unmodied.

Fig. 8. Nomarski-contrast micrograph showing the interaction between slip bands and a grain boundary (identied by the arrows) in a sample with small DAS (17 mm). Applied strain: 2.3%. Alloy AA603, unmodied.

When a ductile material is reinforced by a dispersion of elastic rigid particles, incompatibility stresses develop in both particles and matrix [17 20]. These stresses result from the differences in elastic constants as well as from differences in the deformation mode (i.e., the matrix deforms elastically while the particles remain elastic). The stresses resulting from plastic deformation of the matrix increase rapidly at low strains and can cause the cracking of the reinforcing phase [21,22]. At larger strains, their rate of increase is limited by plastic relaxation around the particles, and therefore the rate of particle cracking with the applied strain decreases. In order to apply these general principles to the present materials, two different physical situations must be considered, depending on the value of the DAS. For small DAS, the Si particles are isolated and the degree of interaction between particles and slip bands is limited. Grain boundaries offer the most signicant obsta-

Fig. 7. Nomarski-contrast micrograph showing the interaction between slip bands and cell boundaries in a sample with large DAS (56 mm). Applied strain: 1%. Alloy AA603, unmodied.

cle to slip bands in this material, as shown in Fig. 8. Plastic incompatibility between neighbouring grains and, at increasing strains, the build-up of a forest of dislocations near the grain boundaries [1820] can be expected to make stress relaxation more difcult for particles sitting at or near the grain boundaries than for isolated particles away from the grain boundaries. Particle stresses are therefore more likely to be higher near the grain boundaries, increasing the local probability of particle cracking and consequently favouring an intergranular type of fracture. In material with large DAS, the dense and distinct cell boundaries divide the deformed material into isolated regions by stopping the slip bands, as shown in Fig. 7. Dendrite cell boundaries can be expected to be opaque to slip bands for several reasons, namely [23]: the high local density of Si particles results in a local increase in both the elastic modulus and the strain hardening coefcient [24]; differences in the thermal expansion coefcient between particles and matrix induce localised plasticity during quenching after solution treatment, thus increasing the local density of dislocations [2528]; during ageing, enhanced precipitation occurs on the thermally generated dislocations [28]; and the thermally generated dislocation network extends between neighbouring reinforcing particles [28]. The net effect of particle clustering along the cell boundaries is then a locally stronger matrix which is more likely to interfere with plastic relaxation around the reinforcing particles [29], enhancing the incompatibility stresses between the plastic matrix and the elastic particles. Thus, in large DAS material, the strongest interaction with plastic deformation occurs on the cell boundaries, and this can be expected to lead to preferential cracking along the cell boundaries and, ultimately, to transgranular fracture.

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Table 2 The number and area fraction of cracked Si particles in cell and grain boundaries Alloy DAS (mm) Type of boundary Grain Cell Grain Cell Grain Cell Grain Cell Grain Cell Grain Cell Grain Cell Grain Cell Grain Cell Grain Cell Grain Cell Number-fraction of cracked particles on boundary 0.055 0.123 0.080 0.099 0.168 0.090 0.065 0.145 0.280 0.170 0.126 0.192 0.149 0.144 0.221 0.106 0.126 0.242 0.218 0.235 0.265 0.186 Area-fraction of cracked particles on boundary 0.117 0.271 0.210 0.243 0.338 0.199 0.175 0.329 0.511 0.296 0.304 0.414 0.369 0.351 0.459 0.264 0.269 0.507 0.355 0.384 0.485 0.308 Distance from fracture surface (mm) 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

603Sr 601Sr 601Sr

56 48.5 26

603um 52 603um 21.5 603Sr 601Sr 601Sr 56 48.5 26

603um 52 603um 27 603um 21.5

Sr, chemical modication with strontium; um, unmodied alloy.

It should be noted that the local effects due to enhanced dislocation density and precipitation discussed for material with large DAS apply also to material with small DAS. The difference is that, in material with large DAS, they reinforce the effect of clustering by linking neighbouring particles and ensuring the continuity of the cell boundary. If the particles are isolated as in material with small DAS (e.g., Fig. 6), these effects are deemed less important since dislocations can bypass the particles.

The preferential cracking of particles on either cell or grain boundaries seems then to be determined by the relative ability of each type of boundary to offer a signicant obstacle to plastic deformation. This conclusion makes an important distinction from the simple topological explanation of the different fracture paths mentioned at the beginning of this section. The relative continuity of the boundaries is important not so much as to offer an interconnected path for nal fracture as it is to enable the boundary to participate in the strain hardening process.

Fig. 9. The number and area fraction of cracked Si particles in cell and grain boundaries in unmodied alloy. Measurement made 1 mm away from the fracture surface (data from Table 2).

Fig. 10. The number and area fraction of cracked Si particles in cell and grain boundaries in Sr-modied alloy. Measurement made 1 mm away from the fracture surface (data from Table 2).

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4.2. The inuence of particle morphology

The particular DAS value at which the more ductile intergranular fracture begins to occur has been related to the ability of the dendritic structure to maintain its identity after solution treatment [7]. This can be related to the particles morphology. AlSiMg alloys are solution heat treated at 540C for several hours in order to improve the morphology of the eutectic Si particles. The rate of breakdown and spherodisation depends on both the type and size of the particles that predominate in the structure: rods tend to break up into smaller pieces by an instability at the interface between the Al and the Si that leads to necking and parting, prior to ripening of the fragments [3033]. This process is well documented and can be easily visualised by comparing the as-cast with the heat-treated structure (see, for instance, the metallographic study in Ref. [30]). Fine as-cast particles resulting from fast solidication rates or chemical modication grow at the expense of the smaller ones, with an overall increase in size and interparticle distance. In contrast, akes in unmodied structures are inherently more resistant to this type of instability [33] and morphological changes beyond an increased degree of roundness are less evident after heat treatment. The differences in the susceptibility to the solution heat treatment of different types of particles are reected on the dendritic boundaries: in Sr-modied alloys, the as-cast Si particles are very small for all DAS and thus only the denser, thicker boundaries of large dendrites will be able to maintain enough particle clustering after heat treatment as to ensure transgranular fracture. Conversely, in the unmodied alloys, the Si akes are more resilient to the effect of the solution treatment at all DAS except for the smallest DAS where thermal modication occurs [7], leading to transgranular fracture at smaller DAS than in Sr-modied material. Particle morphology also plays a role in the strength of the interaction between particles and plastic deformation. A simple way, albeit rather unrealistic, of quantifying the shape of the Si particles is the aspect ratio, dened as the ratio between the mutually perpendicular largest and shortest dimensions of the particle in the plane of polishing. In Sr-modied material, the aspect ratio of the Si particles is small and independent of the DAS, while in unmodied material the aspect ratio tends to increase with increasing DAS [7]. When the material is deformed, particles with large aspect ratio increase the strain hardening rate at low strains [23] and tend to crack more readily [7,22], showing that elongated particles interact more with plastic deformation than rounder ones. Cell boundaries with plate-like particles, such as the ones shown in Fig. 5, can thus be expected to be more efcient in blocking the disloca-

tions. For a given DAS, this is probably an added effect which makes cell boundaries of unmodied material more effective barriers to dislocations in comparison with Sr-modied material, thus helping to extend the transgranular fracture mode to smaller DAS in unmodied material. This is discussed in Appendix B using geometrical arguments. It is relevant to comment here on the type of particles found in the boundaries. It was observed that the higher Mg alloys had more Fe-rich precipitates, presumably Al6FeMg3Si6 (y -phase) particles, which are known to form at high Mg contents [34]. These particles are large and tend to crack very readily, especially in chemically modied alloys [35], reducing the ductility. However, since the DAS at which the change in fracture mode occurs does not depend on the Mg content, it was assumed that the type of particle was irrelevant for this study and no distinctions were made in Table 2 between Fe-rich intermetallics and Si particles.

4.3. Tensile ductility and DAS

The increase in ductility at small DAS in chemically modied materials has already been reported in the literature. Doglione et al. [8] observed the effect in a Na-modied A356 alloy, and based on their SEM observations in situ, they suggested that at small DAS the numerous and highly branched interdendritic channels disperse the microcracks, postponing fracture. This explanation, however, implies that the value of the DAS alone determines the ductility and thus fails to account for the difference in DAS at which the ductility increases in unmodied and Sr-modied material. Surappa et al. [6] also observed an increase in the ductility of Sr-modied alloy when the DAS decreased from about 60 mm (sand cast alloy) to about 40 mm (die cast alloy). They concluded that in material with the smaller DAS (die cast), the microcracks are short and do not show a tendency to link with each other by forming shear bands. Instead, microcrack linkage occurred by ductile failure of the ligaments between cracks. In contrast, the lower ductility of the material with larger DAS (sand cast) was due to the formation of larger microcracks in the eutectic regions which tended to link with others nearby by forming shear bands along the interdendritic channels. The conclusions of the present work are more in line with this view. A general picture of the process can thus be depicted as follows. Plastic deformation causes a monotonic increase in Si particle cracking, at a rate determined by the microstructure [8,22,35]. When about 10% of the particles crack, there exists a distribution of microcracks along the sample [68]. Final fracture occurs when these microcracks become unstable and grow,

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linking with others nearby on a cross-sectional plane. At large DAS, this instability of microcracks percolates along the dendritic cell walls, which offer a continuous network of cracked Si particles and other microcracks, leading to the low ductility transgranular fracture [7]. At small DAS, the lack of continuity of the cell walls reduces the size and isolates the incipient microcracks. The linking of neighbouring microcracks, which now tends to occur along the grain boundaries due to the higher density of cracked particles, is more difcult, increasing the materials ductility.

5. Summary and conclusions An anodising technique was used to determine the proportion of intergranular fracture in Al 7%Si0.4/ 0.7%Mg alloys. The number and area fractions of cracked Si particles located at either cell or grain boundaries were also determined. In material with large DAS, the nal fracture occurs along the cell boundaries and the fracture mode is transgranular. In small DAS material, nal fracture tends to concentrate along grain boundaries. The transition from transgranular to intergranular fracture mode occurs at a DAS of about 30 mm in the unmodied alloys and 50 mm in the Sr-modied alloys and is accompanied by an increase in the ductility. The number and area fractions of cracked particles are larger in cell boundaries than in grain boundaries for material with large DAS. The opposite occurs in small DAS material. Preferential cracking on cell or grain boundaries depends on the relative ability of each boundary to offer an effective obstacle to plastic deformation.

Fig. 11. Space lling hexagons simulating dendrite cells. The eutectic Si is assumed to form a continuous layer of thickness t along the boundaries.

The centre to centre distance AB between contiguous hexagons and the area Ah of each hexagon can be expressed in terms of the length of the hexagons side, R, as AB = 1.73R, and Ah = 2.58R 2. The volume fraction of eutectic, f, can thus be expressed as: f= t t = AB 1.73R (A1)

The area of the hexagons can be used to calculate their area equivalent circle diameter, Dc = 1.82R. In turn, for small dendrites, Dc relates to the DAS as Dc $ 1.6 DAS [15]. Substituting in Eq. (A1): DAS $ 0.66 t f (A2)

Acknowledgements Support from the Australian Governments Co-operative Research Centres Program and from COMALCO Research Centre is gratefully acknowledged.

Appendix A. The relation between DAS, volume fraction of eutectic and Si particle size In Fig. 11, space lling hexagons have been used to represent the dendritic structure. To ensure a tight boundary that will block the passage of dislocations thus meeting the condition postulated for transgranular fracturethe eutectic is assumed to form a continuous layer of thickness t in between the hexagons. (More realistic boundary structures are discussed in Appendix B, Figs. 12 and 13).

Fig. 12. A schematic representation of a dendritic boundary composed of unmodied Si plates of aspect ratio h = 3. The vertical lines represent slip bands forming an angle with the normal to the plane of the boundary.

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Fig. 13. A schematic representation of a dendritic boundary formed by spherical Sr-modied Si particles of diameter D. The vertical lines represent slip bands forming an angle with the normal to the plane of the boundary.

However, when \ 0, the gaps between the particles allow a fraction of the slip bands to go through, and comparison of Figs. 12 and 13 show that the Srmodied boundary is signicantly more open than the unmodied one. The number of particles per unit length of boundary in the Sr-modied alloy is N while the corresponding number in the unmodied alloy is N /h and the diagrams show that there is an open slit every two particles. Therefore, S, the linear density of slits, is S = N /2h. The slit opening is given by d sin and dening the permeability of the layer, P, as the fraction of boundary uncovered by the particles, P = Sd sin = N d sin 2h (A3)

Assuming that a single layer of Si particles (i.e. Figs. 12 and 13) lines up the dendritic boundaries, t can be identied with the average diameter of the particles and therefore Eq. (A2) gives the limiting DAS* for transgranular fracture. In Sr-modied alloy [7], the area equivalent circle diameter of the Si particles is approximately 4 mm and their aspect ratio approximately 1.6. Their thickness can then be approximated by about 3 mm. In the unmodied alloy, the average size of the Si particles at small DAS is of the order of 5 mm, but since their aspect ratio is about 2.2, their average thickness is approximately 3 mm as well. Thus, with t = 3 mm and f = 0.07, Eq. (A2) yields DAS* $ 28 mm. This value is very close to the observed DAS value in unmodied alloys ( 30 mm) but is much smaller than for the Sr-modied alloys ( 50 mm). Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed in Appendix B.

At any given angle \ 0, the Sr-modied boundary is h times more permeable that the unmodied one. This implies that to compensate for their relative openness, the Sr-modied boundaries need to be thicker. Assuming that the permeability decreases linearly with the thickness of the boundary, then the Sr-modied boundary needs to be h times thicker than the unmodied one, and from Eq. (A2) the DAS will also increase proportionally. The actual average aspect ratio of the Sr-modied particles is h 1.6 while in the unmodied material h 2.2 [7]. Thus, the Sr-modied dendrites need to be 2.2/1.6 $ 1.4 times larger than the * = 1.4DASum * = 1.4x28 unmodied ones. That is, DASSr mm = 39 mm, which approaches the observed value in the Sr-modied material ( 50 mm).

References Appendix B. The effect of the shape of the Si particles Figs. 12 and 13 show two highly idealised boundaries, one meant to represent the unmodied structures (Fig. 12), and the other the Sr-modied structures (Fig. 13). The vertical lines in the gures represent slip bands forming an angle with the plane of the boundaries. In building the diagrams, it was assumed that the Sr-modied particles are round, i.e., aspect ratio h = 1, while for the plates of the unmodied material, h = 3. The volume fraction in the two boundaries is the same, so the plates thickness, t, and the Sr-modied particles diameter, D, relate as t = (
y /2)D, while the layers in each boundary are assumed to be a distance d apart. For simplicity, it will be assumed d = t $ D. In Appendix A it was assumed that a single layer of eutectic particles of thickness t was enough to make the boundaries tight. The boundaries in Figs. 11 and 12 meet that assumption when slip occurs normally to the plane of the boundary ( = 0).
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