EFFECT OF STRONTIUM ADDITION ON MICROSTRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL

PROPERTIES OF AlSi7Mg0.3 ALLOY

S. Derin and Y. Birol

Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey

U. Aybarç
CMS Jant ve Makina San. A.Ş. R&D Centre, Cigli, Izmir, Turkey

Copyright Ó 2016 American Foundry Society

DOI 10.1007/s40962-016-0117-4

Abstract
The effect of Sr on the microstructure and mechanical 0.2 wt% on the tensile properties of AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy is
properties of AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy were investigated over a limited. Nevertheless, tensile properties enjoy some
wide range of Sr additions between 0.01 and 0.2 wt%. Sr improvement with increasing Sr additions, possibly owing
modifies not only the eutectic Si particles but also the b- to the modification of b-Al5FeSi at high Sr additions. The
Al5FeSi needles. While 0.01–0.02 wt% Sr suffices to modification of b-Al5FeSi needles apparently compensates
achieve an adequate level of eutectic modification, it takes for the increasing porosity as well as grain coarsening, the
higher Sr additions to modify the b-Al5FeSi needles. The two adverse effects of Sr addition.
porosity and average grain size increase with increasing Sr
additions, but there is no evidence of coarsening of eutectic Keywords: AlSi7Mg0.3, modification, mechanical
Si particles, to signal overmodification. Since the adverse properties, microstructure
and favourable effects introduced by Sr addition balance
each other, the impact of Sr additions between 0.01 and

Introduction modifying agent used in aluminium foundries today as the

modification capacity of Sr is far longer lasting than Na.
The vast majority of aluminium cast parts are produced The addition of 0.015–0.025 wt% Sr has thus become a
from the Al–Si system.1 Al–Si foundry alloys offer, in standard practice to improve the mechanical properties of
addition to low density, favourable mechanical and phys- Al–Si alloys.
ical properties, good weldability and high corrosion resis-
tance with excellent castability.2,3 Strontium has also been reported to modify the b-Al5FeSi
intermetallic particles that lead to high stress concentra-
Hypoeutectic Al–Si foundry alloys contain a high volume tions and thereby degrade the mechanical properties.14–20
fraction of eutectic silicon particles. These particles play a However, not all the side effects produced by Sr additions
key role in determining the mechanical properties of Al–Si are favourable. Sr additions were claimed to be responsible
alloys. Silicon is an inherently brittle faceted phase that for increased porosity in Al–Si alloys.21–25 Sr addition has
leads to premature crack initiation and rapid propagation been reported to enhance the effectiveness of oxide inclu-
and is thus responsible for the poor mechanical properties sions in the aluminium melt as pore nucleation sites.26 The
of Al–Si alloys in the as-cast state.4 Coarse silicon and Fe- difference in porosity characteristics thus depends on the
based intermetallics reduce ductility, fatigue and impact amount of Sr oxides present in the solidified structure.27
properties to some extent. A widely employed remedy to Porosity often causes a reduction in mechanical properties
improve mechanical properties of hypoeutectic Al–Si and results in low-quality castings.28 Strontium additions
alloys is to add modifying agents such as Na and Sr to also interact with the grain refinement of aluminium
transform the morphology of eutectic silicon from coarse foundry alloys.29–32 Strontium tends to react with B in
platelets to fine fibres.5–13 Strontium is the predominant aluminium melts to form the SrB6 compound.29 This is

International Journal of Metalcasting

Table 1. Chemical Analysis of AlSi7Mg0.3 Alloy Used in The present work was undertaken to investigate the effect
Present Work (wt%) of Sr addition on the microstructure and mechanical
properties of AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy, the standard material for
Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Zn Ti Al
light alloy wheels. While this has been an extensively
6.91 0.08 0.001 0.002 0.30 0.07 0.11 Bal researched topic,14–32 a wide range of Sr additions between
0.01 and 0.2 wt% (100 to 2000 ppm) that extends well
beyond the commercial practice were tested in the present
particularly a concern when the grain refinement of the work to identify all the potential effects of Sr. In addition to
melt is performed with Al–B grain refiners rather than the the modification of eutectic silicon particles, effects of Sr
Al–Ti–B-type master alloys. Formation of SrB6 not only addition on the morphology of the Fe-based intermetallic
degrades the performance of the grain refiner but also compound particles, porosity formation and grain size were
impairs the modification process resulting in poor also measured in order to identify the optimum Sr addition
mechanical properties.29 level.

Figure 1. Microstructure of cast AlSi7Mg0.3 samples (a) before and after modification with
(b) 0.01 wt% Sr, (c) 0.02 wt% Sr, (d) 0.05 wt% Sr, (e) 0.1 wt% Sr, (f) 0.2 wt% Sr.

International Journal of Metalcasting

Experimental Tensile test specimens were produced separately by pour-
ing the alloy melts into bottom-fed permanent moulds. The
The AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy was produced by melting commer- microstructure of these samples, as inferred from the
cial purity aluminium, magnesium and elemental silicon in dendrite arm spacings, was similar to that of the simulated
an electric resistance furnace to obtain AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy wheel castings. Turbulence-free filling was achieved, and
melts weighing approximately 4 kg. The first set of cast- sound castings were obtained. The samples were subse-
ings was produced without strontium addition. An addi- quently solution heat treated at 540 °C for 4 h, quenched in
tional five sets of castings were produced by adding to Sr- water at 80 °C in 90 s and artificially aged at 145 °C for
free AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy melt different levels of strontium 3 h. They were tested on a Zwick Z100 model tensile
ranging between 0.01 and 0.2 wt%. Commercial AlSr15 testing machine at ambient temperature with a strain rate of
master alloy rods were used to supply Sr. The molten alloy 5 mm min-1. They were tested in the fully processed state
temperature was fixed at 740 °C, and the permanent mould to facilitate a fair comparison with the aluminium wheels
was preheated to 320 °C before the melt was poured into from standard production runs.
permanent moulds designed so as to achieve solidification
conditions encountered in the hub section of the aluminium The samples for microstructural analysis were sectioned
wheels where the cooling rate was measured to be from the test bars, mounted and prepared with standard
approximately 1 °C s-1. The melting and casting practices metallographic practices. They were ground with SiC paper
and the post-casting operations employed on the six groups and polished with diamond paste to a 0.25-micron finish.
of castings were the same as those used in industrial alu- Their microstructures were examined after etching with a
minium wheel production. The chemical analysis of the 0.5% HF solution using an Olympus GX41 model optical
castings was obtained with a commercial optical emission microscope for gas and shrinkage porosity and the mor-
spectrometer (Table 1). It is worth mentioning that the Fe phology and distribution of the intermetallic and eutectic
content of the present alloy (0.08 wt%) is too low to impact silicon particles. Commercial image analysis software was
the mechanical properties.

Figure 3. SEM micrographs and EDS analysis of the b-

Figure 2. Al–Si–Sr compound particles in AlSi7Mg0.3 Al5FeSi needle-like particles in AlSi7Mg0.3 samples
samples modified with 0.2 wt% Sr. (a) before and (b) after the addition of 0.2 wt% Sr.

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 Figure 4. Porosity in AlSi7Mg0.3 samples (a) before and after modification with (b) 0.01 wt% Sr,
(c) 0.02 wt% Sr, (d) 0.05 wt% Sr, (e) 0.1 wt% Sr, (f) 0.2 wt% Sr.

used to estimate the porosity volume fractions. The grain

structures were checked after etching in a solution of % 32
Table 2. Percent Values of the Porosity Content in the
HCl, % 32 HNO3, % 32 H2O and % 4 HF. Samples were
Alloy Modified with the Various Amount of Sr
examined also with a JEOL JSM-6060 model scanning
Sr addition (wt%) Percent porosity (%) electron microscope (SEM) equipped with a energy-dis-
persive X-ray analysis (EDS) unit.
0.01 0.08
0.02 0.28
0.05 0.56 Results and Discussion
0.1 0.67
0.2 1.52
Figure 1 shows the as-cast microstructures of AlSi7Mg0.3
samples before and after modification. Coarse Si platelets

International Journal of Metalcasting

 are evident in the unmodified sample (Figure 1a). A fine
dispersion of predominantly fibrous Si particles implies an
adequate level of modification already after the addition of
0.01 wt% Sr (Figure 1b). Occasional coarse Si platelets are
nevertheless noted at this addition level. There is a modest
improvement in the modification of eutectic silicon when
the addition level is increased to 0.02 wt% Sr (Figure 1c).
However, increasing the Sr addition level beyond this point
does not produce further improvement in the morphology
of the eutectic phase, as the Si particles are already fully
fibrous (Figure 1d–f). It is thus fair to conclude that
0.01–0.02 wt% Sr suffices to achieve an adequate level of
modification while Sr additions above 0.02 wt% fail to
offer further improvement in the modification level.

High Sr addition levels, such as those employed in the

present work, have been reported to lead to coarsening of
eutectic Si particles.13,33 This is referred to as overmodi-
fication and is often linked with the formation of Al–Sr and
Al–Sr–Si compounds which can degrade the properties of
the alloy and erase the benefits of modification.34–36 While
Al–Sr–Si particles were noted for the first time at the Sr
addition level of 0.1 wt%, there was no evidence of
coarsening of eutectic Si particles over the Sr addition
levels investigated in the present work. These polyhedral
particles are located in close proximity to the Si colonies as
reported in Reference 33 and were found by EDS analysis
to be Al2Si2Sr type (Figure 2).

Iron-rich intermetallic phases in as-cast AlSi7Mg0.3 alloys

are in the form of b-Al5FeSi needles which exhibit a mor-
phology very similar to that of the eutectic Si phase and are
thus difficult to identify in the unmodified state (Figure 1a).
The light grey needle-like particles in Figure 1b, c are the
monoclinic b-Al5FeSi phase plates. These particles are
known to be very detrimental to the mechanical properties,
particularly to the ductility of aluminium foundry alloy.37–40
They retain their needle-like morphology at low Sr additions
(Figure 3). While b-Al5FeSi needles are frequent in cast
samples modified with 0.01–0.02 wt% Sr (Figure 1b, c),
they gradually disappear with increasing Sr (Figure 1d–f).
Finally, there is no evidence of needle-like, plate-like mor-
phologies in cast samples modified with 0.1–0.2 wt% Sr. b-
Al5FeSi needles must have been either replaced with Fe-
based intermetallics of more compact morphologies or have
undergone fragmentation into more compact morphologies
as suggested by Caceres et al.41 At higher Fe content, one
would expect to see ‘‘chinese script’’ morphology.

Micrographs in Figure 4 are taken from those regions of

the cast samples where the pores are more frequent than the
rest of the section. It is fair to conclude from Figure 4 that
the porosity increases with increasing Sr additions. The
volume fraction of porosity, estimated to be 0.08% at a Sr
Figure 5. Grain structures in AlSi7Mg0.3 samples mod- addition of 0.01 wt%, has more than doubled when the Sr
ified with (a) 0.01 wt% Sr, (b) 0.02 wt% Sr, (c) 0.05 wt% Sr, addition increased to 0.02 wt% (Table 2). There is a
(d) 0.1 wt% Sr, (e) 0.2 wt% Sr. gradual increase in porosity with further increase in the Sr

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 Table 3. Tensile Test Results of AlSi7Mg0.3 Samples Modified at Different Sr Levels

Sr addition (wt%) rY (MPa) rUTS (MPa) A50 (%)

0.01 190.49 ± 2.40 251.57 ± 10.9 5.21 ± 2.70

0.02 190.19 ± 2.54 248.25 ± 8.10 4.51 ± 1.71
0.05 190.80 ± 1.13 248.32 ± 11.7 4.71 ± 2.56
0.1 199.55 ± 2.61 253.94 ± 15.4 5.21 ± 3.06
0.2 202.73 ± 1.21 263.68 ± 3.30 6.84 ± 1.41

compounds owing to its high reactivity and cause an

increase in hydrogen content of the melt.45 The impact of
280 solidification rate on porosity formation needs to be also
considered.46
260
Figure 5 shows the as-cast grain structures of the
AlSi7Mg0.3 samples modified at different Sr addition levels.
240
Some loss of grain refining effect shortly after modification is
strength (MPa)

inevitable when Al–Si foundry alloys are grain refined with

220 binary Al–B grain refiners30 and excess boron-type Al–Ti–B
ternary grain refiners since SrB6 is more stable than the AlB2.
200 However, such an interaction would not be expected in alloys
grain refined with excess Ti ternary Al–Ti–B master alloys
since TiB2 is more stable than SrB6. Nevertheless, a gradual
180 yield strength coarsening in the as-cast grain structure with increasing Sr
tensile strength
addition level is noted in the present work which employed a
160 commercial Al–5Ti–1B master alloy for grain refinement.
0,00 0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20
The average grain size was observed to double over the Sr
Sr addition (wt%)
additions from 0.01 to 0.2 wt% suggesting that excessive Sr
10 additions can also be detrimental to the grain refinement
9
process. Stable Sr–Ti-based compounds such as SrTiO3 may
be responsible for the degradation of the grain refinement in
8 the present work. The section macrographs in Figure 5 also
7 confirm the marked increase in porosity with increasing Sr
additions.
elongation (%)

5 The Sr addition level is shown to have an impact on a

number of structural features of the cast AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy,
4
some favourable but others degrading. One would expect
3 these effects of the Sr addition level on the structural fea-
2 tures of the AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy to be adequately reflected by
the tensile properties (Table 3, Figure 6).
1

0 The impact of Sr addition level on the tensile properties of

0,00 0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20 AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy appears to be limited. This is not sur-
Sr addition (wt%) prising since the adverse and favourable effects of Sr
Figure 6. Change in (a) tensile and yield strength and addition more or less balance each other over the range of
(b) tensile elongation values of AlSi7Mg0.3 samples in additions investigated in the present work. Nevertheless,
the T6 temper with Sr addition level. tensile properties, elongation values in particular, seem to
enjoy a modest improvement with increasing Sr additions.
addition level. Finally, the volume fraction of porosity was Among the microstructural changes linked with Sr addi-
estimated to be 1.52% at the Sr addition of 0.2 wt%. The tion, the modification of the b-Al5FeSi needles and the
present results confirm that Sr modification contribute to eutectic Si plates are the only ones with a potentially
pore formation particularly at high additions above favourable impact on tensile properties. Hence, only these
0.1 wt% and are consistent with earlier studies which two effects can be credited for any improvement with
report significant increases in hydrogen content after Sr increasing Sr additions. The modification of b-Al5FeSi
additions.23,42–44 Sr is known to form hydrogen-bearing needles is predominant at high Sr additions, i.e. they

International Journal of Metalcasting

achieve increasingly compact polyhedral shapes starting at 6. A.K. Dahle, K. Nogita, S.D. McDonald, C. Dinnis, L.
a Sr addition of 0.1 wt%. In contrast, there is hardly any Lu, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 413–414, 243 (2005)
improvement in the modification of the eutectic silicon, at 7. A. Kosa, Z. Gasci, J. Dul, Mater. Sci. Eng. 37, 43
Sr additions above 0.05 wt%. Hence, it is fair to attribute (2012)
the improvement of tensile properties at high Sr additions 8. J.E. Gruzleski, AFS Trans. 100, 673 (1992)
to the modification of the Fe-based intermetallic particles 9. J.E. Gruzleski, B.E. Closset, The Treatment of Liquid
which offers an overriding effect and compensates for the Aluminium–Silicon Alloys (American Foundrymeńs
increased porosity as well as grain coarsening, the two Society Inc, Des Plaines, 1999), p. 256
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Acta Mater. 60, 3920 (2012)
11. S. Hedge, K.P. Narayan, J. Mater. Sci. 43, 3009 (2008)
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13. COMALCO, Modification of foundry Al–Si alloys.
Sr modifies not only the eutectic Si particles but also b- Technical report No. 4, Comalco Aluminum Limited.
Al5FeSi needles. While 0.01–0.02 wt% Sr suffices to Brisbane, Australia (1997)
achieve an adequate level of eutectic modification, it takes 14. S.G. Shabestari, J.E. Gruzleski, AFS Trans. 103, 285
much higher Sr additions to transform the b-Al5FeSi (1995)
intermetallics. In addition to the above favourable effects, 15. C. Villeneuve, F.H. Samuel, Int. J. Cast Met. Res. 12,
Sr additions also produce an increase in porosity and a 145 (1997)
degrading effect on grain refinement, thereby leading to 16. F.H. Samuel, P. Ouellet, A.M. Samuel, H.W. Doty,
grain coarsening. The average grain size was observed to Metall. Mater. Trans. A 29, 2871 (1998)
double over the Sr additions from 0.01 to 0.2 wt%. While 17. P. Ashtari, H. Tezuka, T. Sato, Mater. Trans. 2003(44),
there is no evidence of coarsening of Si particles, to signal 2611 (2003)
overmodification encountered at high Sr additions, the 18. M. Timpel, N. Wanderka, R. Grothausmann, J. Ban-
porosity and average grain size increased with increasing hart, J. Alloys Compd. 558, 18 (2003)
Sr levels. Since these opposing effects balance each other, 19. S. Shouxun, W. Yang, F. Gao, D. Watosn, Z. Fan,
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the tensile properties of AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy is rather limited. 20. Z. Ma, A.M. Samuel, F.H. Samuel, H.W. Doty, S.
Nevertheless, tensile properties enjoy a modest improve- Valteıerra, Mater. Sci. Eng. A A490, 36 (2008)
ment with increasing Sr additions, possibly owing to the 21. D. Emadi, J.E. Guzleski, J.M. Toguri, Met. Trans. B
modification of b-Al5FeSi needles at high Sr additions. The 24B, 1055 (1993)
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the increased volume fraction of porosity and grain size. 23. D. Stuart, S.D. McDonald, A.K. Dahle, J.A. Taylor,
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24. R. Fuoco, H. Goldenstein, AFS Trans. 105, 883 (1997)
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