Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402

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Materials Science & Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Correlation of solidication microstructure rening scale, Mg composition MARK

and heat treatment conditions with mechanical properties in Al-7Si-Mg cast
aluminum alloys

Rui Chena, Qingyan Xua, , Huiting Guob, Zhiyuan Xiab, Qinfang Wub, Baicheng Liua
a
Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Technology (MOE), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084,
China
b
Mingzhi Technology Co. Limited, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: Analysis of solidication conditions, compositions and heat treatment parameters and their mutual interaction
Al-7Si-Mg cast alloys on the microstructure evolution is of great importance for designing components with desired mechanical
Solidication microstructure properties. The present paper aims at widening the knowledge on the correlation of solidication microstructure
Heat treatment rening scale, Mg composition and heat treatment parameters with the mechanical properties in Al-7Si-Mg cast
Precipitation hardening
aluminum alloys. The results reveal that the advantage of ne solidication microstructure can be inherited
Tensile properties
after heat treatment, with the ner microstructure being characterized by higher tensile properties.
Furthermore, with the solidication microstructure rening, the fracture mode transforms from quasi-cleavage
to dimple and fracture path transforms from transgranular to intergranular. With the increase of Mg
composition, both yield strength and ultimate tensile strength increase, while the elongation decreases.
Higher articial aging temperature can decrease the peak strength. Dierent solution treatment can produce the
dierent tensile properties because of the dierent microstructures and composition. A yield strength model
using an experiment-based term 0 to account the eect of solidication and solution treatment is proposed,
and the relationship between yield strength and ultimate tensile strength is described using an empirical
equation.

1. Introduction
Al-7Si-Mg cast alloys (typically A356 and A357 alloys) are exten-
sively used in the aerospace and automotive industries due to their
excellent formability, high corrosion resistance, and good comprehen-
sive mechanical properties. Owing to the excellent uidity, these alloys
enable casting components with complex geometry. However, the
mechanical properties of the components in Al-7Si-Mg alloys in as-
cast condition is generally poor and unable to meet the requirements of
structural applications [1,2], thus a proper T6 heat treatment involving
solution treatment, water quenching, and articial aging are usually
applied to obtain the desired combination of mechanical properties.
Since the complex component is characterized by a range of cooling
rates due to the various local wall thicknesses, the solidication
microstructure consisting of primary dendrite, eutectic silicon, Fe-
based intermetallic phases, and solidication defects such as shrinkage
and porosity, varies from dierent zones, thus resulting in the wide
variety of mechanical properties in the component. Many investigators
have illustrated that the cooling rate dependent secondary dendrite
arm spacing (SDAS), usually used to describe the neness of dendrite
structure, is a signicant factor determining the mechanical properties
of Al-7Si-Mg cast alloys [35]. The reason is that the dendrite structure
directly controls the size and distribution of eutectic silicon and
intermetallic compounds, as well as the solidication defects. It is
usually considered that higher mechanical properties, especially the
ultimate tensile properties and elongation, can be obtained with
smaller SDAS. The inuence of eutectic silicon, Fe-based intermetallics
and solidication defects on the mechanical properties of Al-7Si-Mg
alloys was also highlighted in previous works [68]. The presence of
coarse plate-like eutectic silicon, needle-shaped and polyhedral Fe-
based phases with sharp edges formed in slow cooling conditions would
inevitably degrade the mechanical properties. In the case of high
cooling rates, the ne eutectic silicon and intermetallic particles with
a uniform distribution will decrease the possibility of particle cracking
and propagation during deformation, leading to the high mechanical
properties, especially the ductility. Ultimate tensile strength and

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: scjxqy@tsinghua.edu.cn (Q. Xu).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2016.12.051
Received 3 October 2016; Received in revised form 8 December 2016; Accepted 9 December 2016
Available online 10 December 2016
0921-5093/ 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
R. Chen et al.
elongation are clearly aected by solidication defects, since the tensile
failure propagates by plastic bridge between dierent defects [9,10]. A
multivariable regression analysis was performed for A356 alloy by
Ceschini et al. [6], in order to evaluate the correlations between the
tensile properties and the most importance solidication microstruc-
tural parameters including area fraction of solidication defects, SDAS,
grain size, area and aspect ratio of eutectic silicon particles. It indicates
that the grain size shows a negligible eect on the mechanical proper-
ties in the certain range of grain size, while SDAS and size of eutectic
silicon particles aect both elongation and ultimate tensile strength.
Solution treatment carried out at a high temperature aims to
dissolve the Mg-rich intermetallic phases, to homogenize the alloying
elements in the matrix, and to spheroidize the eutectic silicon. The
homogenization of Si and Mg elements is completed after a short
solution treatment, and the fragmentation and spheroidisation of
eutectic silicon occurs in less than 0.5 h for modied alloys whereas
it continues longer than 4 h for unmodied alloys, as reported by Lados
et al. [11], which means that the optimized solution treatment time is
aected by solidication microstructure. Increasing the solution treat-
ment temperature has a benecial eect on the mechanical properties
attainable after articial aging treatment [12,13]. Zhang et al. [13]
reported that an increase in solution treatment temperature from
500 C to 560 C results in a slight increase in the peak yield strength
(~7%) and a more signicant increase in the peak ultimate tensile
strength and hardness (~11% and ~20% respectively). The mechanical
properties of heat-treated Al-7Si-Mg alloys highly depend on the
articial aging treatment since the precipitation of Mg-Si strengthening
phases either coherent or semi-coherent with the matrix is sensitive to
both aging temperature and time. Various works have been carried out
on this aspect [1416]. Alloying composition also produces signicant
inuence on the mechanical properties in Al-Si-Mg alloys [11,17,18]. A
higher Mg content should, rst, lead to a higher volume fraction of Mg-
Si precipitates, and second, may even alter the thermodynamic and
compositional characteristics of the precipitates by increasing the
nucleation driving force and growth kinetics. Taylor et al. [19] showed
that the peak yield strength in Al-7Si-Mg alloys increases linearly up to
a Mg content of around 0.6 wt%, while it is reduced for further higher
Mg concentrations. The reason is that the Fe-rich phases in high Mg
content alloys are mainly stable -AlFeMgSi, and the number and size
increases with the increase of Mg content [20]. Si is the major alloying
element in Al-7Si-Mg alloys, and Si content determines the eutectic
fraction and inuences the fragmentation and spheroidization behavior
of eutectic silicon during solution treatment process. Generally, after
heat treatment, the alloy with a higher Si content has higher yield
strength and ultimate tensile strength, but lower elongation [11].
Although extensive investigations on the eect of processing
parameters and alloying composition on the microstructure evolution
and mechanical properties have been conducted for Al-7Si-Mg alloys,
composition, solidication and heat treatment are usually investigated
independently, and as a result, the mutual interaction between them is
still not known well. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of the inuence
of solidication, composition and heat treatment conditions on the
microstructures and mechanical properties in Al-7Si-Mg alloys need
further detailed investigation. The aim of the present work is therefore
to present the results of a series of microstructural characterization and
mechanical property testing in Al-7Si-Mg alloys, in order to quantita-
tively understand the role of solidication microstructure, Mg compo-
sition and heat treatment parameters played in controlling the
mechanical properties.
2. Experimental procedures
The step shape sand casting with the geometry shown in Fig. 1(a)
was used to acquire a range of cooling rates. The wall thickness varies
from 4 mm to 40 mm, and the steps were successively labeled as No.1
to No.7 from thick to thin. K-type thermocouples were inserted into the
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Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402
mid-section at the heights of each step to record the cooling curves
upon solidication. Fig. 1(b) shows the conguration of the tensile test
bars (length 190 mm, diameter 13 mm) which were used to investigate
the correlation of heat treatment conditions and Mg composition with
mechanical properties. The chemical compositions of Al-7Si-Mg alloys
used in present study were given in Table 1. Alloy 1 was used to
produce the step shape casting and Alloy 24 with dierent Mg content
was used to produce the tensile test bars. Prior to casting, these alloys
were melted in a resistant furnace at 720740 C, and were degassed
with nitrogen. 0.1 wt% Al-5Ti-B was added into the melt to rene the
grain size and strontium modier in the form of Al-10Sr master alloy
(200 ppm) was added to modify the morphology of eutectic silicon.
After solidication, at tensile sample with the shape and dimen-
sion shown in Fig. 2(a) was cut from each step (Fig. 1(a)), and the
cylindrical tensile sample with an in inner diameter of 12.5 mm and
gauge length of 62.5 mm (Fig. 2(b)) was prepared by machining the
tensile test bar in Fig. 1(b). Tensile samples successively went through
solution treatment, hot water quenching at a temperature of 70 C, and
articial aging at dierent temperatures for various times. The detailed
heat treatment parameters for both kinds of tensile samples were
displayed in Table 2. After heat treatment, tensile tests were carried out
at room temperature by using the AG-IC100 kN universal testing
machine at a constant crosshead speed of 1 mm/min. Experimental
data were collected and processed to provide yield strength (YS,
actually 0.2% proof stress), ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and
elongation to fracture (E%). Micro-hardness was measured in Vickers
units in the dendrite arms by using a load of 0.1 kg for a dwell time of
15 s.
For microstructual characterization, the as-polished samples were
etched in 0.5%HF solution for 40 s in order to reveal the dendrite
structure for optical microscope observation or electrolytic etched in an
etch composed of 10 ml HClO4 (70 vol%)+90 ml anhydrous ethanol for
1215 s at 15 V voltage to reveal the eutectic silicon morphologies for
further observation using scanning electron microscope (SEM,
MERLIN Compact) equipped with Energy dispersive X-ray spectro-
scopy (EDS). Image analysis on the optical and SEM micrographs were
performed using the Image Pro-Plus 6.0 software to evaluate the
average secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS), morphological fea-
tures of eutectic silicon including average aspect ratio, average length
as well as average width, and the average length of intermetallics. Mean
linear intercept method was used to measure the SDAS through
averaging the distance between adjacent side branches on optical
metallographic images. The aspect ratio was calculated as the ratio
between the major and minor axis through assuming the eutectic
silicon to be a perfect ellipse. A threshold of 1 m2 was set as the
minimum particle area which means that the eutectic silicon particles
with an area smaller than 1 m2 were not considered. In order to
investigate the failure mechanisms in relation to the dierent solidi-
cation microstructures, fracture surface of tensile samples were ob-
served through SEM. Dierential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was
performed using a TA Instrument DSC Q2000 in a heating rate of
10 C/min to investigate the eects of solution treatment on the phase
transformation. TEM thin foils were prepared by electropolishing in a
3:1 methanol-nitric acid solution at 30 C with a voltage of 20 V and
then thinning by ion milling, and the accelerating voltage of 200 kV was
utilized to characterize the nano-size precipitates in a Tecnai G2 F20 S-
TWIN Transmission Electron Microscope.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Cooling curves and microstructural characterization of step
casting
Cooling curves at each step are displayed in Fig. 3, where two
obvious phase transformations including dendrite growth and eutectic
formation were observed. The average cooling rate for dendrite growth
R. Chen et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402

Fig. 1. Schematic of dimensions of the step shape sand casting (unit: mm) (a) and geometry of sand casting tensile test bar (b).

Table 1
Chemical composition (wt%) of experimental alloys used for step casting and tensile test
bars.

Si Mg Fe Mn Ti Sr Al

Alloy 1 7.11 0.360 0.128 0.015 0.112 0.011 Bal. Step casting
Alloy 2 7.43 0.262 0.185 0.013 0.185 0.014 Bal. Tensile test bar
Alloy 3 6.99 0.401 0.117 0.013 0.117 0.015 Bal. Tensile test bar
Alloy 4 6.94 0.588 0.131 0.012 0.131 0.011 Bal. Tensile test bar

(a) 100
32
30
25
3
10

10

R10

(b) 170 Fig. 3. Cooling curves of dierent steps (Nos.17) of Al-7Si-0.36Mg alloy.
40 70
50
from 611.3 C to 595.0 C, and TE decreases from 565.6 C to 557.0 C.
The corresponding time dierence (tE-tN) decreases from 257.0 s to
d20

7.5 s. The calculated average cooling rate of each step is also shown in
d12.5

Table 3.
R2

Fig. 4(a)(d) shows the optical microstructure of as-quenched

Fig. 2. Shape and dimensions of tensile samples (unit: mm) according to ASTM E8M- samples, referred to No.1, No.3, No.5 and No.7. The microstructure
2004 standard, (a) at tensile sample from step casting, (b) cylindrical sample from
is characterized by the presence of -Al dendrites, surrounded by a
tensile test bar.
eutectic mixture of aluminum and silicon. The rening scale of
microstructure in dierent steps is characterized by means of second-
Table 2
Heat treatment parameters for flat tensile samples and cylindrical tensile samples. (ST: ary dendrite arm spacing, and the values are shown in Table 3. It can be
solution treatment). seen that SDAS varies inversely with the cooling rate. In fact, as
reported in Ref. [22,23], SDAS in Al-7Si-Mg alloys ts well with the
Sample type ST ST Aging Aging Purpose empirical equation: SDAS=A(RC)-n, where A and n are the character-
temperature time temperature time (h)
(C) (h) (C)
istic constants of alloys. The value of A and n are revealed to be 42.8
and 0.302 by tting the data in Table 3. High cooling rate not only
Flat 535 2 180 8 Influence of as- contributes to the reduction of SDAS, but also in the modication of
Flat 550 2 180 024 cast eutectic silicon and rening of intermetallic phases during solidica-
microstructure
tion [24]. The cooling rate dependent eutectic silicon and intermetallic
refining scale
Cylindrical 550 2 200 036 Influence of Mg phases in solidication microstructure will aect the following solution
Cylindrical 550 2 180 072 composition treatment response. Fig. 4(e)(h) shows the SEM microstructure
Cylindrical 550 2 160 0120 and heat corresponding to No.1, No.3, No.5 and No.7 samples in as-quenched
Cylindrical 535 2 180 072 treatment
condition, in order to demonstrate a substantial microstructure
Cylindrical 535 0.5 parameters
8
dierence in the size and shape of eutectic silicon and intermetallic
Cylindrical 550 0.5 phases after the same solution treatment. It is obvious that some coarse
8 intermetallic phases indicated by the arrows exist in the eutectic region
in No.1 and No.3 samples, but with much smaller size in No.5 and No.7
samples. The results of SEM and EDS mapping analysis are given in
is determined using the following formula: RC=(TN-TE)/(tE-tN), where Fig. 5 to identify these intermetallics. It shows that the irregular coarse
TN and TE are respectively the minimum temperature at one set of intermetallics contain Al, Si, Mg and Fe, namely the -AlSiMgFe phase
solidication and eutectic temperature [21], and tN and tE are the [20], while for the needle-shaped intermetallics, it contains Al, Si, Fe
corresponding times on the cooling curves. As seen from Fig. 3, when and minor quantities of Mn, namely the -Al(Fe, Mn)Si phase.
the wall thickness decreases from 40 mm (No.1) to 4 mm (No.7), the Although the chemical formula -Al5FeSi is widely accepted for the
minimum temperature as well as the eutectic temperature is reduced, needle-shaped intermetallic phase in Al-7Si-Mg alloys, other minor
with the values of each step being displayed in Table 3. TN decreases

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R. Chen et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402

Table 3
Solidification parameters and quantitative microstructural results of No.1 to No.7 samples.

No. TN (C) TE (C) tE-tN (s) RC(C s1) SDAS (m) Length of intermetallics Aspect ratio of Si particles Length of Si particles (m) Width of Si particles (m)
(m)

1 611.3 565.6 257.0 0.18 70.1 3.5 43.4 15.1 2.22 0.127 6.47 0.796 3.18 0.272
2 611.0 563.1 208.0 0.23 66.8 3.4 37.2 13.4 2.15 0.123 6.19 0.951 3.16 0.414
3 610.2 562.0 134.0 0.36 60.7 2.9 34.6 9.0 1.80 0.058 4.31 0.394 2.51 0.205
4 608.8 560.8 83.0 0.58 53.2 4.5 27.8 6.1 1.68 0.067 3.84 0.544 2.36 0.254
5 606.0 559.8 50.0 0.92 43.0 3.1 18.3 5.3 1.65 0.052 3.54 0.151 2.22 0.060
6 604.1 558.7 30.0 1.51 36.7 2.6 11.6 3.1 1.63 0.073 3.33 0.154 2.14 0.042
7 595.0 557.0 7.5 5.0 24.9 1.7 8.85 2.6 1.65 0.057 3.44 0.182 2.18 0.124

alloying elements are also reported to be possibly contained in this
phase [25]. The average length of intermetallics is also displayed in
Table 3. A high cooling rate or small SDAS decreases the size of
intermetallics. The intermetallics appeared in the microstructure is
known to reduce the mechanical properties, especially for the ultimate
tensile strength and elongation, and the undissolved -AlSiMgFe phase
after solution treatment will also reduce the Mg content available for
the following precipitation hardening. Size, morphology and distribu-
tion of eutectic silicon are also important parameters to inuence the
mechanical properties of Al-7Si-Mg alloys. As is known, during

Fig. 4. Optical images to show the typical dendrite structure of No.1 (a), No.3 (b), No.5 (c) and No.7 (d) samples, and SEM images to characterize the eutectic silicon particles and
intermetallic phases in No.1 (e), No.3 (f), No.5 (g), and No.7 (h) samples in as-quenched condition.

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R. Chen et al.
Fig. 5. SEM and EDS mapping analysis of intermetallic phases formed in the microstructure in No.1 sample.
solution treatment, the eutectic silicon undergoes necking and is
broken down into smaller fragments, and is gradually spheroidized
and coarsened, as the holding time increases [12]. Some coarse and
blocky eutectic silicon are observed in No.1 and No.3 samples (Fig. 4(e)
and (f)), while the eutectic silicon is characterized by globular
morphology with small size and homogeneous distribution in No.5
and No.7 samples (Fig. 4(g) and (h)). The quantitative microstructural
assessments of eutectic silicon features are shown in Table 3. It is clear
that the average length, width as well as aspect ratio of eutectic silicon
decrease continuously with the cooling rate increasing, expect for No.7
sample. It can be seen that the value of eutectic silicon features of No.7
is slightly larger than that of No.6 sample. The reason accounting for
this phenomenon is that the eutectic silicon in No.7 is fully modied
after solidication, and such kind of eutectic microstructure can
accelerate the break-up process and the fragmented particles will enter
the coarsening process after a short time solution treatment.
3.2. Tensile properties and fracture behavior of step casting
Results of tensile properties including yield strength, ultimate
tensile strength and elongation for the samples in as-cast state, as-
quenched state and T6 state are summarized in Fig. 6. As can be seen,
solution treatment by holding at 535 C for 2 h leads to a slight
increase in YS and UTS, and an obvious improvement in elongation
compared with the values in as-cast state. This variation is associated
with the homogenization of solute atoms and the variation of eutectic
silicon as well as the dissolution of intermetallics. After aging treat-
ment, due to the precipitation of nano-size phases, the strength
especially YS is signicantly improved and the elongation decreases.
The eect of microstructural coarseness on the mechanical properties
is reected by comparing the tensile properties of each step. The ner
microstructure with smaller SDAS is characterized by higher tensile
properties, expect for the yield strength of No.6 and No.7 in as-
quenched (Fig. 6(d)) and T6 samples (Fig. 6(g)). For the T6 state
samples, as SDAS decreases from 70.1 m (No.1) to 24.1 m (No.7),
UTS and E% are continuously improved from 225 MPa to 278 MPa
and 0.6% to 8.1%, respectively, which is main attributed to the
decreased size and density of casting defects such as porosity and
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Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402
inclusion [6,24]. Furthermore, the coarse eutectic silicon and brittle
intermetallics as observed in Fig. 4(e) also contribute to the poor
properties. The yield strength is observed to be relatively less aected
by SDAS, with the value for T6 samples varying in the range of
214 MPa and 227 MPa (Fig. 6(g)). It should be noted that the yield
strength of No.6 (SDAS=36.7 m) is slightly higher than that of No.7
(SDAS=24.9 m) both in as-quenched and T6 state, which results from
the dierent eutectic silicon microstructure as shown in Table 3. This
result also reveals that the eutectic silicon in the microstructure can
produce a certain strengthening eect. The relationship between the
tensile properties and SDAS for this alloy is successfully evaluated by
regression analysis using the equation: Y=aSDAS2+bSDAS+c, where
Y represents YS, UTS and E%, and a, b, c are coecients.
SEM images of the tensile fracture surfaces of No.1, No.4 and No.7
samples in T6 condition are shown in Fig. 7. It is obvious that extensive
irregular cleavage planes with some tearing ridges and a small number
of dimples, typical quasi-cleavage fracture mode, can be observed in
No.1 (Fig. 7(a)). This phenomenon is associated with the presence of
the blocky or plate-like eutectic silicon and the coarse intermetallics in
the microstructure of No.1 as these brittle phases are the main sources
of stress concentration and fracture more easily. Due to the rening of
SDAS as well as brittle phases and the decrease of casting defect size in
No.4 compared with No.1 (Table 3), the area and size of the cleavage
planes decrease and the number of the dimples increases as shown in
Fig. 7(b), resulting in a mixed fracture mode and a higher strength and
elongation (Fig. 6). For the No.7 sample as shown in Fig. 7(c), the
cleavage plane disappears and the fracture surface is covered by ne
and uniformly distributed equiaxed dimples, which is typical charac-
teristic of ductile facture. The homogeneous presence of small dimples
in No.7 sample means that a large amount of plastic deformation prior
to fracture has taken place. Obviously, it exists a stepwise transition
from brittle to ductile behavior with the microstructure rening. Fig. 8
shows the microstructure near the fracture surface of No.1 and No.7
samples after deeply etched to discuss the microstructure dependent
fracture behavior. No.1 sample fractures mainly across dendrite arms
and the coarse eutectic silicon particles clustered along dendrite
boundaries, as shown in Fig. 8(a), indicating that the fracture path is
transgranular. With the SDAS rening in No.7 sample (Fig. 8(b)), the
R. Chen et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402

Fig. 6. Tensile properties as a function of SDAS for the samples in as-cast state (ac), as-quenched state (df) and T6 state (gi).

nal fracture path tends to go through the eutectic structure along the
grain boundaries, exhibiting an intergranular fracture mode. The
fracture behavior concerning with dierent microstructure is consis-
tent with that reported by Wang et al. [3]. The fracture process of Al-
7Si-Mg cast alloys undergoes three mixed events: (1) eutectic silicon
and intermetallic particle cracking, (2) microcrack initiation and
growth, and (3) connection of local micro-cracks. The cracking of
particles is determined by the particle features, with the particles
occupying larger size and aspect ratio cracking more frequently. As
observed in Fig. 8, most of small globular silicon particles are not
cracked, while there are many large particles cracked (black arrow),
with the crack direction normal to the tensile direction. In the coarse
microstructure with large SDAS (No.1 sample), coarse eutectic silicon
and intermetallics cluster along the dendrite boundaries, especially in
the regions between two dendrite arms or adjacent to the dendrites due
to the back diusion from dendrites to particles [25]. The coarse
particles between dendrite arms are cracked easily during plastic
deformation and can provide an easy path for crack propagation,
leading to a transgranular type of fracture. In No.7 sample, small SDAS
makes the dendrite arm boundaries more discontinuous with fewer

Fig. 7. SEM fractographs of tensile samples in T6 condition, (a) No.1, (b) No.4, (c) No.7.

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R. Chen et al.
Fig. 8. SEM fractographs of side views of fractured tensile samples in T6 condition, (a) No.1, (b) No.7.
silicon particles, decreasing the possibility of micro-crack formation
and connection in these regions. As a result, the fracture path tends to
pass through the eutectic regions along the grain boundaries under
strong interaction between slip bands and plastic ow, resulting in an
intergranular fracture behavior.
3.3. Eect of composition and heat treatment on mechanical
properties
The high strength in Al-7Si-Mg alloys is achieved by T6 heat
treatment, where Mg-Si precipitates provide the precipitation hard-
ening. The heat treatment parameters including the time and tem-
perature both of solution treatment and articial aging, as well as
quenching rates play an important role on the precipitation kinetics
and mechanical properties. Further, the alloy composition is also
reported to inuence the aging response and aging hardening capacity.
In this section, a detailed investigation of these parameters on tensile
properties was carried out using the tensile test bars as shown in
Fig. 1(b) to acquire a better understanding of these factors.
Fig. 9 shows the tensile properties of Al-7Si-Mg alloys with dierent
Mg content after solution treatment at 550 C for 2 h and articial
aging at 180 C. It is seen that the Mg content has a major impact on
the age hardening capacity. The yield strength increases with the
increase of Mg content and the peak value in three alloys is achieved
within 1224 h, with the values being 239 MPa, 271 MPa and
301 MPa, respectively. As is known, the contribution of age hardening
to the yield strength is determined by both of the density and size as
well as the size distribution of Mg-Si precipitates in the matrix [26].
The increase of yield strength with the increase of Mg content is mainly
attributed to the increase of precipitate density at under aged stages
and both to the precipitate density and size at peak aged and over aged
stages. This conclusion is conrmed by the precipitation kinetics
modeling in our another paper [27]. The ultimate tensile strength also
increases with the Mg content increasing, with the peak values being
281 MPa, 301 MPa and 312 MPa, respectively. It is found that the
dierence between UTS and YS is decreased as Mg content increases,
Fig. 9. Tensile properties varying with the articial aging time in Al-7Si-Mg cast alloys containing dierent Mg content. (a) Yield strength, (b) Ultimate tensile strength, (c) Elongation.
Samples solution treated at 550 C for 2 h, and articial aged at 180 C for various times.
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Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402
which means that the plastic deformation capacity is reduced. This is
conrmed by the decrease of the elongation when Mg content
increases, as shown in Fig. 9(c). This phenomenon is attributed to
the changes of the type, size and volume of Fe-rich intermetallic
compounds formed in the microstructure, as suggested by Yldrm
et al. [28], since the formation of these compounds depends on the Mg
content. Another reason is that with the increase of Mg content, the
number density of Mg-Si precipitates increases and the dislocation-
precipitate interaction eect during plastic deformation is enhanced
[29], resulting in a higher work hardening rate, which in turn decreases
the plastic deformation capacity as well as the elongation. The results
reveal that a proper Mg content should be used to obtain the desired
comprehensive mechanical properties.
The inuence of articial aging temperature (160 C, 180 C,
200 C) on the tensile properties of Al-7Si-Mg alloy is investigated
with the results being displayed in Fig. 10. Fig. 11 show the bright-eld
TEM micrographs of precipitates within the matrix for the samples
articial aged at 180 C for dierent times. The electron beam incident
direction is [001] of the Al matrix. Taking the yield strength at 180 C
for example, it can be seen that YS increases slightly in the rst 20 min
(initial incubation period), because the precipitates in the matrix are
mainly spherical GP zones with a low density and poor hardening eect
(see Fig. 11(a)) [30]. Expect the GP zones, it also exists very few
precipitates with a monoclinic structure (see Fig. 11(d)) [31]. When the
aging time increases to 4 h, YS increases dramatically, which is mainly
attributed to the rapid nucleation and growth of precipitates. This is
conrmed by the microstructure presented in Fig. 11(b), in which a
high density of needle-like phase lying in the Al matrix along three
orthogonal variants of [001]Al can be seen, and the precipitates is
fully coherent with the Al matrix (see Fig. 11(e)). After 4 h, the yield
strength increases slowly until reaching the peak value, i.e., 271 MPa at
12 h. During the over-age stage, the yield strength decreases because of
the dissolution of the precipitates in small size and the transformation
from the coherent phase to semi-coherent phase or even to the
incoherent -Mg2Si phase which give a lower contribution to strength
(see Fig. 11(c) and (f)) [32]. It can be seen that at a higher temperature,
R. Chen et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402

Fig. 10. Tensile properties varying with the articial aging time in Al-7Si-0.4Mg cast alloy. (a) Yield strength, (b) Ultimate tensile strength, (c) Elongation. Samples solution treated at
550 C for 2 h, and articial aged at 160 C, 180 C and 200 C for various times.

the time to peak yield strength (3 h, 12 h and 48 h) is shorted and the
peak value (261 MPa, 271 MPa and 280 MPa) is decreased, as shown
in Fig. 10(a). Increasing the aging temperature accelerates the aging
process since the diusion rate both of Si and Mg atoms is improved,
thus the rate of precipitate nucleation and growth is larger at a higher
aging temperature. The variation of ultimate tensile strength
(Fig. 10(b)) at dierent temperatures is observed to have a similarity
compared with the variation of yield strength. The dierence in the
elongation at dierent aging temperatures appears at the under-age
stage while less dierence is observed both at peak-age and over-age
stages, as shown in Fig. 10(c).
The primary purposes of solution treatment at high temperature
are: (1) to achieve the maximum content of magnesium and silicon and
to homogenize their distribution in the matrix; and (a) to modify the
eutectic silicon microstructure features and to dissolve the interme-
tallics. The microstructure evolution during solution treatment process
can induce an important role on the mechanical properties. Table 4
displays the tensile properties of as-quenched samples solution treated
at 535 C and 550 C. As observed in Table 4, the tensile properties
increases with the solution treatment time increasing, with the peak
value being reached somewhere between 2 h and 6 h, and passing the
peaks, the properties decrease. By comparing the data between 535 C
and 550 C, one can see that a higher solution treatment temperature
can increase the tensile properties. The results reveal that both solution
temperature and time can aect the tensile properties, mainly because
of the dierent microstructure and composition induced by dierent

Fig. 11. Bright-eld TEM images show the precipitates in the matrix of the samples aged at 180 C for (a) 20 min, (b) 4 h, (c) 120 h (Selected area electron diraction patterns along the
[001] direction of the matrix).

398
R. Chen et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402

Table 4
Effect of solution temperature and time on the tensile properties of as-quenched samples
in Al-7Si-0.4Mg alloy (ST: solution treatment).

ST time (h) 535 C 550 C

YS (MPa) UTS (MPa) E% YS (MPa) UTS (MPa) E%

0.5 116.2 185.6 5.44 125.5 202.0 7.70

1.0 121.0 189.2 6.46 129.6 206.2 8.16
2.0 125.5 193.9 9.10 132.8 214.2 10.83
4.0 127.4 200.4 9.78 134.1 209.3 10.41
6.0 126.1 199.3 9.24 132.0 213.4 11.21
8.0 124.5 197.6 9.00 127.9 205.8 10.21

Note: Delay time between quenching and tensile test is no more than 10 min.

solution treatment. Fig. 12 shows the tensile properties varying with

the aging time for the samples solution treated at 535 C for 2 h and
550 C for 2 h. It is seen that the tensile properties at 550 C for 2 h are
higher than that at 535 C for 2 h. The peak yield strength at these two
temperatures is respectively 259 MPa (535 C) and 271 MPa (550 C)
with the dierence being 12 MPa, which is larger than that in as-
quenched condition (8.5 MPa). This result reveals that the precipita-
tion hardening induced by Mg-Si strengthening phases is also aected
by the solution treatment temperature. This phenomenon is attributed
to the fact that the coarse Mg-containing intermentallics, as shown in
Fig. 4(e), is relatively stable and hard to be dissolved [33], and the
dissolution of these intermetallics at 550 C is much more complete
with a higher Mg content in the matrix compared with that at 535 C,
thus leading to a larger precipitation hardening eect. Another reason
for this phenomenon is that the higher equilibrium solubility of Si
(1.28 wt% at 550 C and 1.12 wt% at 535 C calculated by Pandat [34])
can accelerate the precipitation kinetics, resulting in the higher yield
strength. Fig. 13 shows the micro-hardness variation in the matrix as a
function of aging time of the samples solution treated at 535 C for
0.5 h or 8 h, in order to examine the inuence of solution treatment
time on the precipitation hardening. The micro-hardness at 535 C
0.5 h is higher than that at 535 C 8 h, with the dierence between
peak hardness being higher than that at as-quenched condition. This
phenomenon also results from the dierent Mg content in the matrix.
Our previous work has indicated that a prolonged solution treatment
will decrease the Mg content in the matrix [35], which is attributed to
the diusion of Mg atoms towards the pores and to the formation of
nanoscale particles of Mg oxides on the internal surface of the pores, as
suggested by Long et al. [36]. The lower Mg content in the matrix
would reduce the volume fraction of the strengthening precipitates
during subsequent aging process and lower the precipitation hardening
capacity. To testify this conclusion, Fig. 14 shows the DSC traces
corresponding to the as-quenched samples solution treated at 505 C,
535 C and 550 C for 0.5 h (a), and at 550 C for 0.5 h or 8 h (b) to
examine the inuence of solution treatment temperature and time on
Fig. 13. Micro-hardness variations in the matrix as a function of aging time for the
samples solution treated at 535 C for 0.5 h or 8 h, and articial aged at 180 C for
various times.
precipitate behavior. The peaks marked as A, B, C, D respectively
represent the dissolution of GP zones (A), the precipitation of (B),
the Si precipitation and - transformation (C), and the transforma-
tion from the phase to the equilibrium phase (D) [18,37]. It can be
seen in Fig. 14(a) that with the solution temperature increasing, the
peak B is slightly displaced to lower temperatures with bigger size,
indicating that the Mg content in the matrix is higher at a higher
solution temperature. The decrease in the size of peak B means the
decrease of volume fraction of phase, which leads to the lower
precipitation hardening capacity. Further, the size of peak B of the
sample solution treated at 550 C for 0.5 h is slightly bigger than that at
550 C for 8 h (Fig. 14(b)) owing once again to the higher Mg content.
The results indicate that the solution treatment parameters can aect
the precipitation kinetics and mechanical properties.
4. Discussion
4.1. Eect of solidication microstructure and heat treatment on
mechanical properties in Al-7Si-Mg alloys
The nal mechanical properties of Al-7Si-Mg alloys are greatly
inuenced by secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS), size and
morphology of eutectic silicon and intermetallic compounds, casting
defects, Mg-Si precipitates, and content of alloying elements, all of
which depend on the composition, solidication conditions and heat
treatment. Many works have been done to conclude the empirical
relationships between the tensile properties and the most important
microstructural parameters [4,6,38]. It indicates that the solidication
defects produce little inuence on YS, while it mainly inuences the

Fig. 12. Tensile properties varying with the articial aging time in Al-7Si-0.4Mg cast alloy. (a) Yield strength, (b) Ultimate tensile strength, (c) Elongation. Samples solution treated at
535 C or 550 C for 2 h, and articial aged at 180 C for various times.

399
R. Chen et al.
Fig. 14. DSC curves during heating the as-quenched samples after solution treated for 0.5 h at dierent temperatures (a), and solution treated at 550 C for 0.5 h or 8 h (b).
UTS and E%, since the defects act as stress raisers. The data of eutectic
silicon features in Table 3 and tensile properties in Fig. 6 indicate that
the renement of eutectic silicon particles has an eect on the strength
in Al-7Si-Mg alloys. Lados et al. [11] have studied the level of strength
increase from as-cast condition to T6 condition in Al-x pct Si-0.45 pct
Mg alloys (x=1, 7, 13), and revealed that alloys with a higher Si content
have experienced greater changes both in UTS and YS, which is
attributed to the dierence in the size, density and morphology of
eutectic silicon particles after solution treatment. The silicon particle
strengthening results from the Orowan dislocation bowing mechanism
expressed as [39]: =0+k0.5, where is the strength, k and 0 are
constants and is the mean particle interspacing. The strengthening
eect is closely related to the size and density of eutectic silicon
particles, with the smaller eutectic silicon particles being associated
with a decrease in particle spacing, which, in turn lead to the increased
strengthening eect induced by eutectic silicon. In the alloys with a
higher Si content, the fragmentation produces more small particles,
which induces the higher strengthening eects, as observed in Ref.
[11]. Furthermore, the eutectic silicon with spherical shape (small
aspect ratio) exhibits a higher resistance to debonding under the
imposed straining, which is also benecial to the enhancement in the
mechanical properties. The SDAS, used to quantitatively describe the
level of dendrite structure coarseness, has a direct eect on the
distribution and size of eutectic silicon particles and intermetallic
compounds, as well as the solidication defects. As a result, various
works evaluated the tensile properties using SDAS as the main
microstructure parameter. The positive eect of the reduction in
SDAS on the tensile properties results from the increased dendrite
boundary area (Hall-Petch strengthening mechanism [40]), and the
neness of the eutectic silicon, intermetallic compounds and solidica-
tion defects. As is shown in Fig. 6, the sample with smaller SDAS
occupies higher tensile properties, especially the UTS and E%, in as-
cast state, as-quenched state and T6 state, indicating that the advan-
tages of ne solidication microstructure can be inherited subjected to
subsequent heat treatment. This raises the importance of the investiga-
tion of solidication and heat treatment dependently, to obtain a better
understanding of the inuence of microstructure evolution on mechan-
ical properties.
The inuence of solution treatment time on mechanical properties
(Table 4 and Fig. 13) indicates the importance of knowing the exact
solution treatment time at the intended solution temperature. The time
needed to homogenize the casting depends on the solution treatment
temperature and the size and morphology of the eutectic silicon
particles in as-cast condition. For the casting with brous morphology
eutectic silicon (solidied at relatively high cooling rates and treated by
chemical modication), a short solution treatment time can be applied
since the brous morphology is easier to fragment and spheroidize,
while for the casting with coarse blocky and plate-like eutectic silicon
Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402
(solidied at low cooling rates and no chemical modication), the time
required for eutectic silicon fragmentation and spheroidization is much
longer [12]. Further, too long time solution treatment will make the
eutectic silicon particles coarsening, thus increasing the particle
interspacing and decreasing the strength (Table 4). The solution
treatment time also determines the dissolution extent of intermetallic
compounds and the formation of nanoscale particles of Mg oxides on
the internal surface of the pores [36], thus aecting the Mg content
obtainable in the matrix for the subsequent precipitation. An increase
in solution treatment temperature can produce higher tensile proper-
ties, as shown in Table 4 and Fig. 12. Similar results were also reported
by Zhang et al. [13]. The higher solution temperature can produce the
higher content of alloying elements and higher number of vacancies in
the solid solution [41], leading to a higher volume fraction of Mg-Si
precipitates (clearly reected by the DSC traces in Fig. 14(a)) and the
accelerated precipitation hardening capacity. Further, the signicantly
enhanced kinetics of eutectic silicon fragmentation and spheroidisation
at a higher solution treatment temperature also contributes to the
positive eect on the tensile properties. Aging temperature is an
important parameter since it inuences the precipitation kinetics and
thus the precipitation hardening capacity. The reason for the peak yield
strength varying with the aging temperature as shown in Fig. 10(a) is
attributed to the dierence in the precipitate type, density, size as well
as size distribution in the matrix [26,42].
4.2. Yield strength and ultimate tensile strength model in Al-7Si-Mg
cast alloys
The tensile strength (YS and UTS) and elongation (E%) are the
commonly used index to judge the mechanical property of Al-7Si-Mg
castings in practical production, and thus it is meaningful to establish
the corresponding models. Considering the microstructure character-
istics of Al-7Si-Mg cast aluminum alloys, the yield strength contains
contributions from various strengthening mechanisms, including the
intrinsic strength (i), solid solution strengthening (ss), precipita-
tion hardening (ppt), the strengthening due to the eutectic silicon
particles and intermetallics (eutectic), and the contribution of dendrite
boundary strengthening (GB). The overall yield strength calculation
of articial aged Al-7Si-Mg alloys can be achieved by linearly adding
the various contributions:
YS = i + GB + eutectic + ss + ppt (1)
It must be noted that the contribution of GB is mainly controlled
by the area of dendrite boundaries which is a function of SDAS and
grain size. This also means that GB is aected by the solidication
conditions. The contribution of eutectic is a function of the size,
number density and morphology of eutectic silicon particles and
intermetallics, all of which is aected by the solidication conditions
400
R. Chen et al.
and the solution treatment parameters. Since the terms i, eutectic,
and GB are expected to remain unchanged during articial aging
process, they can be represented by a term 0:
YS = 0 + ss + ppt
In as-quenched state, none precipitates exist in the matrix (i.e.
ppt=0), thus Eq. (2) can be expressed as:
0 = YS ss
Solid solution strengthening term (ss) depends on the mean
solute concentration of each alloying element which is expressed as
ss=k SiwSi+kMgwMg (kSi and kMg are constants related to the properties
of solute, wSi and wMg are the average solute concentrations in the
matrix) [43]. If the as-quenched yield strength which varies with the
solidication and solution treatment conditions is known (see Table 4),
we can calculate the value of 0.
Since the ultimate tensile strength and elongation of Al-7Si-Mg
alloy are inuenced by the microstructures (silicon particle, interme-
tallics, precipitates) and defects (shrinkage, inclusion) formed during
solidication and heat treatment processes, it is dicult to establish
quantitative models similar to Eq. (2) for the prediction of UTS and E
%. Many researches have concluded that there are some relationships
between the tensile properties of Al-7Si-Mg alloys [44,45], thus in
present paper, we try to obtained the empirical expression for UTS by
tting the experimental data. Fig. 15 shows the inuence of SDAS and
heat treatment parameters on the relationship between (UTS-YS) and
YS for Al-7Si-0.4Mg alloys (symbols are experimental data before over
aged stage and line are tting curves). It can be seen that the (UTS-YS)
linearly decreases with the increase of YS, and the decrease of SDAS is
benecial to the improvement of (UTS-YS) as shown in Fig. 15(a),
which is due to the fact that the size of eutectic silicon, intermetallics
and defects decreases with the decrease of SDAS. The tting curves can
be expressed by the following equation
(UTS YS) = mYS + n + f (Tss)
where the parameters m and n vary with SDAS,
m=0.00342SDAS-0.6275, n=-1.744SDAS+234.4 . The results in
Fig. 15(b) show that aging temperature has little inuence on the
relationship between (UTS-YS) and YS, while the decrease of solution
treatment temperature Tss can lower the value of (UTS-YS) because of
the coarse eutectic silicon and undissolved intermetallics. In order to
show the inuence of Tss on the relationship between (UTS-YS) and
YS in Eq. (4), we add a term f(Tss) which is expressed by
f(Tss)=(-0.03YS +19.2)[(Tss-550)/15]. This equation is obtained by the
experimental data solution treated at 535 C and 550 C in Fig. 15(b).
It can be seen that when Tss=550 C, f(Tss) equals to 0, and when
Tss=535 C, f(Tss)=-(-0.03YS +19.2). We also have examined the inu-
Fig. 15. Inuence of SDAS (a) and heat treatment parameters (b) on the relationship between (UTS-YS) and YS for Al-7Si-0.4Mg alloy. The data in (a) is obtained from the at
samples solution treatment at 550 C for 2 h, and aged at 180 C for 024 h.
Materials Science & Engineering A 685 (2017) 391402
ence of Mg composition on the value of (UTS-YS), and found little
inuence. Since through a combination of precipitation kinetics model,
yield strength model and work hardening model, the strain-stress curve
during tensile process can be simulated [46]. So in our further work, we
(2)
will rst predict the yield strength of Al-7Si-Mg alloy (Eq. (2)), and
then use Eq. (4) to predict the UTS, and nally through combing with
the simulated strain-stress curves to determine the elongation (see the
(3) accompanying paper [27]).
5. Conclusions
The inuence of solidication microstructure rening scale and
heat treatment parameters on tensile properties in Al-7Si-Mg cast
aluminum alloys has been investigated. Based on the results obtained
in present study, the following conclusions can be drawn:
(1) With the cooling rate increasing, the solidication microstructure
including the -Al dendrite, eutectic silicon and intermeatllics is
rened, and the advantages of ne solidication microstructure
can be inherited subjected to subsequent heat treatment.
(2) The ner microstructure is characterized by higher tensile proper-
ties, and the relationship between the tensile properties and SDAS
in as-cast state, as-quenched state and T6 condition can be
evaluated by the equation: Y=aSDAS2+bSDAS+c. The improve-
ment of UTS and E% with the microstructure rening is much
more obvious than that of YS. With the increase of cooling rate,
the change of morphology and size of eutectic silicon particles,
intermetallic phases and -Al dendrite make the fracture path
transform from transgranular to intergranular and the fracture
mode transform from quasi-cleavage to dimple.
(3) The strength increases with the increase of Mg composition, while
the elongation decreases. A higher articial aging temperature can
signicantly accelerate the aging process, whereas it can decrease
(4) the peak strength. The dierence in the elongation at dierent
aging temperatures mainly appears at the under-age stage, with a
higher elongation at lower temperatures. Both solution tempera-
ture and time can aect the tensile properties, mainly because of
the dierent microstructure and composition induced by solution
treatment.
(4) Solidication microstructure can aect the nal mechanical prop-
erties of Al-7Si-Mg alloys. The strengthening eect of eutectic
silicon particles is related to their size, morphology and density,
and the positive eect of reduction in SDAS on tensile properties is
associated with the increased dendrite boundary area and the
rened solidication microstructure. A yield strength model taking
into account the solidication conditions and the solution treat-
401
R. Chen et al.
ment parameters is proposed. The relationship between yield
strength and ultimate tensile strength of Al-7Si-Mg alloys is
correlated using an empirical expression.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support of the
National Basic Research Program of China (Grant no. 2011CB706801),
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos.
51374137, 51171089), and the National Science and Technology
Major Projects (Grant nos. 2012ZX04012-011, 2011ZX04014-052).
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