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Research ArticleCharacterization of the Role of Squeeze Casting
on theMicrostructure andMechanical Properties of the T6 Heat
Treated2017A Aluminum Alloy
S. Souissi ,1 N. Souissi,2 H. Barhoumi,2 M. ben Amar,1 C.
Bradai,1 and F. Elhalouani1
1Laboratory LASEM, National Engineering School of Sfax (ENIS),
University of Sfax, B.P. 1173-3038 Sfax, Tunisia2Faculty of
Sciences of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
Correspondence should be addressed to S. Souissi;
[email protected]
Received 29 October 2018; Accepted 24 December 2018; Published
22 January 2019
Academic Editor: Pavel Lejcek
Copyright © 2019 S. Souissi et al. *is is an open access article
distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
In this study, the effects of squeeze casting process and T6
heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties
of2017A aluminum alloy were investigated with scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry
(EDS),differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and microhardness
and tensile tests. *e results showed that this alloy contained
αmatrix, θ-Al2Cu, and other phases. Furthermore, the applied
pressure and heat treatment refines the microstructure and
improvethe ultimate tensile strength (UTS) to 296MPa and the
microhardness to 106HV with the pressure 90MPa after ageing at
180°Cfor 6 h. With ageing temperature increasing to 320°C for 6 h,
the strength of the alloy declines slightly to 27MPa. *en, the
yieldstrength drops quickly when temperature reaches over 320°C. *e
high strength of the alloy in peak-aged condition is caused by
aconsiderable amount of θ′ precipitates. *e growth of θ′
precipitates and the generation of θ phase lead to a rapid drop of
thestrength when temperature is over 180°C.
1. Introduction
Due to their excellent mechanical and physical properties,Al-Cu
cast alloys are used in automobile and military in-dustries,
aerospace, and in applications such as floor beams,engine pistons,
wing box, covers, brake components, fueltanks, slot tracks wheel,
fittings, fuel systems, body skinconnectors [1–3].
However, the major problems in casting these alloysconsist in
their high tendency to form casting defects such ashot tearing,
solidification shrinkage, porosity [2], and theirbad fluidity in
conventional casting processes. *eseproblems have negative effects
on the mechanical propertiesand have greatly limited the
application of Al-Cu cast alloys.Nowadays, for improved alloy
properties, themicrostructurerefinement of Al-Cu cast alloys has
become an importantresearch field because mechanical properties can
be sig-nificantly enhanced by microstructure refinement.
Squeeze casting is one of the modern casting processeswhich have
been invented to address these imperfections
and has a high potential to produce sound castings. It is
ametal-forming process which combines permanent mouldcasting with
die forging into a single operation where moltenmetal is solidified
under applied hydrostatic pressure [4–6].
*e process, which is suitable for shaping both cast andwrought
alloys, improves product quality by pressurizedsolidification,
which prevents the formation of shrinkagedefects, retains dissolved
gases in solution until freezing hascompleted, and has the priority
to form the equiaxed grainstructure [7, 8]. Many research works on
the advantages ofsqueeze casting process have been discussed.
Souissi et al. [9]have shown that squeeze casting caused the
refinement ofthe microstructure and reduction in the dendrite
armspacing (DAS) of the cast structure possibly due to in-creasing
the cooling rate of 2017A aluminum alloy. *eyfound that the gravity
cast specimens have the lowest UTScompared with the squeeze cast
specimens. However, theincrease of UTS and YS is obvious at the
50MPa and100MPa pressure. In the same way, Souissi et al. [10]
havestudied Al-13% Si alloy and found that the dendrite size of
HindawiAdvances in Materials Science and EngineeringVolume 2019,
Article ID 4089537, 9 pageshttps://doi.org/10.1155/2019/4089537
mailto:[email protected]://orcid.org/0000-0002-1287-5993https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/4089537
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the alloy decreases with the increase of the squeezingpressure
in the center and the edge of specimens. Malekiet al. [11] have
investigated considerably the effects ofsqueeze casting parameters
on the microstructure andmechanical properties of aluminum
alloys.
Moreover, another method for improving the me-chanical
properties of the cast Al-Cu alloys is the heattreatment; the most
used method for these alloys is the T6heat treatment. A typical
precipitation hardening treatmentinvolves three steps: (1) the
solution treatment that brings allthe elements into solid solution
state; (2) rapid quenching inorder to avoid diffusion and to retain
supersaturated solidsolution at room temperature; and (3) ageing
treatment toform fine precipitates by controlled decomposition
ofmetastable supersaturated solid solution.
In this regard, Panuskova et al. [12] have investigated
theeffects of the heat treatment solution of Al-Si-Cu cast alloyson
the microstructure of the alloy in three aspects, namely,the
dissolution of coarse Al2Cu, homogenization of themicrostructure,
and improvement of eutectic silicon mor-phology (fragmentation,
spheroidization, and coarsening).In addition, Barhoumi et al. [13]
have studied the effect ofthe T6 heat treatment on Al9Si3Cu alloy
that caused changesin the morphology of eutectic silicon, the
Cu-rich, and Fe-rich phases. *e eutectic is converted into fine
spherodisedSi-phases uniformly distributed in the aluminum
matrix.*e dissolution of Cu-rich phases during heat
treatmentincreases the concentration of Cu and other alloying
ele-ments (Mg and Si) in the aluminum matrix. In this
regard,Muzaffer et al. [14] found that the ageing heat
treatmentmechanisms responsible for the strengthening effect
arebased on the formation of intermetallic phases during
thedecomposition of a metastable supersaturated solid
solutionobtained by solution treatment and quenching. *us,
themechanical properties (UTS, YS, El%, and microhardnessHV) of
these alloys are influenced by the presence ofprecipitates.
In this work, the influence of pressure and T6 treatmentswith
different ageing temperatures was carried out on castaluminum alloy
2017A. *e microstructure and pre-cipitation behavior obtained under
different squeeze pres-sures and heat treatment conditions were
also investigated toprovide theoretical support for the evolution
of strength.*is is to find the relationship between the
microstructure ofalloy and the mechanical properties under the peak
ageing ofvarious heat treatment conditions.
2. Experimental
*e material investigated in this study is 2017A wroughtaluminum
alloy. *e material provides average tensilestrength and good
machinability. It is widely used in me-chanical applications. *e
alloy is received as an extrudedbar of 80mm diameter. *e chemical
composition is pre-sented in Table 1, and it was analyzed by using
an opticalemission spectrometer (ICP-MS). *e material was meltedin
an electric resistance furnace using a graphite crucible.Squeeze
casting was performed using experimental setup asshown in Figure 1.
*e melt was poured into the die
preheated to 250°C. *e pressure was applied to the meltafter
pouring by using a 50-ton vertical hydraulic press usinga ram until
solidification was completed. *e appliedpressures were 0, 30, 60,
and 90MPa. *e cast billets werecylindrical in shape with 23mm in
diameter and about100mm in height.
*e casting was subjected to heat treatment T6 con-sisting of
solution treatment and ageing treatment. Firstly,the temperature of
homogenization treatment of the alloywas performed at 500°C for 8 h
and then quenched intowater at room temperature and ageing at 180°C
for 6 h and320°C at 6 h in order to further prove that the second
phaseswere dissolved into the matrix after solution heat
treatment.After heat treatment, samples were subjected to the
mi-crostructural and mechanical test; all samples for
metallo-graphic analysis were cut in the middle of the
specimens.Metallographic samples were polished and then etched
withthe Keller solution for 10 seconds before rinsing with
dis-tilled water. For the specimens morphology, observationswere
performed by using an optical microscope LEICADMLP with a digital
camera JVC. A PHILIPS-XL30 ESEMscanning electron microscope (SEM)
equipped with energydispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) was used to
quanti-tatively analyze the sizes of the intermetallic compounds
andthe α (Al) dendrite in the as-cast and heat-treated samples.*e
intermetallic particles were identified by using X-raydiffraction
analysis and differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) at a heating
rate of 10°C/min.
To evaluate tensile tests on the specimens of the gravitydie
cast (0MPa) and squeeze cast for each experimentalcondition, an
INSTRON universal testingmachine was used.*e tests were performed
under displacement control with astrain rate starting at 1mm/min.
An extensometer (gagelength of 14.3mm) is attached with two rubber
bands to the
Table 1: Chemical composition of 2017A aluminum alloy
(wt.%).
Cu Mg Si Mn Ni Fe Cr Zn Pb Al4.47 0.45 0.86 0.36 0.36 0.49 0.1
0.25 0.03 Rest
Punch
Billet
Controlled pressure
Figure 1: Schematic presentation of squeeze casting setup.
2 Advances in Materials Science and Engineering
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central part of the specimen. �ree specimen samples
wereprepared.
A Micro-Vickers hardness analysis HV was performedemploying a
MEKTON Vickers Hardness Tester with adiamond pyramidal indenter.
�ree measurements weretaken at randomly selected points with a load
of 300 g ap-plied for 30 s.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Microstructural Characterization of As-Cast Alloy.Figure 2
shows the DSC analysis of the samples in dierentpressures, which
exhibits three exothermic peaks (A, C, andD) and two endothermic
peaks (B and E): peak A corre-sponds to the formation of
Guinier–Preston (GP) zones,followed by an endothermic (peak B) in
the interval[145–195°C] which corresponds to the formation of the
θ″phase (coherent precipitate). �e larger exothermic (peak
C)signies the precipitation of the θ′ phase
(semicoherentprecipitate). However, the dissolution peak of the
pre-cipitates of peak C was not detected; this can be explained
bythe overlap of the peaks due to the rapidity of the
trans-formations. A third exothermic (peak D), located in
thetemperature range 447–510°C, is related to the formation ofthe
θ-Al2Cu phase. �is is followed by a last and moreintense
endothermic (peak E) at the temperature range510–560°C; it signies
the dissolution of the θ-Al2Cu phase[15], and there is a slight
displacement of the peak E, for die-cast alloy under 90MPa, at low
temperatures. �is dis-crepancy can be explained by the increase in
the temperatureof the eutectic transformation under the eect of
thepressure [16].
Figure 3(a) shows the as-cast microstructure of 2017Aalloy under
90MPa squeeze pressure. It is clear that thesample mainly consisted
of dendritic α-Al grains and in-termetallic phases. Analyzing the
microstructures along thedierent transverse sections of the
samples, an α–rich alu-minum dendritic matrix and interdendritic
structures can beobserved from the results of the micrograph. �e
EDXqualitative analysis allowed us to identify the
intermetallicphases. From the chemical composition of the alloy,
andbased on the results of Birol [17, 18], the two phases
areassociated, respectively, with the two intermetallic com-pounds
θ-Al2Cu and Al12(FeMnCu)3Si. However, it seemsthat the distribution
of the θ-Al2Cu phase after the T6 heattreatment is strongly modied
compared to the initialcasting state. Indeed, its distribution
becomes thinner anduniform at grain boundary levels as shown in
Figure 3(b).
�e results of SEM are conrmed with X-ray diraction.Furthermore,
XRD technique was utilized to help establishthe results of the
phase classication based on the metal-lographic study. �e X-ray
diraction spectra of 2017A alloyof the 90MPa under squeeze pressure
in the as-cast and heattreatment conditions are shown in Figure 4.
During heattreatment, no new phase was precipitated. Indeed,
theprecipitates (θ-Al2Cu and Al12(FeMnCu)3Si) as indicated bythe
XRD patterns already revealed by SEM are identied.
3.2. As-Cast and Heat Treatment Microstructure. Figure 5displays
the microstructure of the as-cast alloy prepared atdierent
squeezing pressures. It is clear that the squeezingpressure has
signicant in£uence on the microstructure ofthe alloy. �e results
show that the secondary dendrite armspacing (SDAS) will be reduced
to some extent when thesqueeze pressure of 90MPa is applied. In
this study, it wasfound that microporosity was eliminated
completely whenthe pressure was up to 60MPa. Furthermore, the
in-termetallic phases in the alloy with no applied pressure
arecoarser than those under high squeezing pressure. In-creasing
the freezing point causes undercooling in the alloythat is already
superheated. However, such change infreezing temperature with the
increasing pressure is ex-pected due to the reduction in
interatomic distance and thusthe restriction of atomic movement. �e
higher freezingpoint brings about the larger undercooling in the
initiallysuperheated alloy and thus elevates the nucleation
fre-quency, resulting in a more ne-grained structure. Apartfrom the
changes in undercooling of the molten alloy causedby applied
pressure, greater cooling rates for the solidifyingalloy can be
realized due to reduction in the air gap betweenthe alloy and the
die wall and thus larger eective contactarea [9, 19, 20].
�is is because squeeze pressure plays an active role inthe
diusion of heat and thus enlarges the solidication rate.Obviously,
the increase of undercooling degree and heat-transfer coe¤cient
will result in the renement of the grainsize of squeeze casting
alloy. In addition, the increase indensity of the alloy will be
obtained due to reduction ofmicroporosity [11].
�e microstructure for the heat-treated alloy (as-quenched, aged
at 6 h at 180°C and aged at 320°C) condi-tions is presented in
Figure 6.
0.4
0.2
0.0
–0.2
–0.4
100
Exo
200 300Temperature (°C)
Hea
t flo
w (m
W/m
g)
400 500
90 MPa60 MPa
30 MPa0 MPa
Figure 2: DSC analysis of squeeze cast specimens at
dierentspecic pressures.
Advances in Materials Science and Engineering 3
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�e microstructure reveals a signicant dierence be-tween gravity
casting and 90MPa pressure casting in theheat treatment conditions
of the alloy. From these opticalmicrographs, we can notice that all
the microstructuresconsist of equiaxial grains but are of
homogeneous sizecompared with Figure 5. We also distinguish the
micro-structure of the as-quenched sample (Figure 6(a)). It
showsthat only α-Al matrix was observed because the
intermetallicphases dissolved in the matrix after the
homogenizationtreatment. �erefore, the alloy components were
evenlydistributed despite some residual participants at the
grainboundaries [21]. Compared to the microstructure of dif-ferent
ageing conditions, it can be found that when theageing temperature
of microstructure is 180°C (Figures 6(c)and 6(d)), there are a
large number of precipitation phase inthe matrix. Indeed, the
presence of the precipitates andalloying elements causes braking of
the grain boundaries inmigration. �e growth of precipitates is
governed by thediusion of the solute atoms towards the germs, which
arethermally activated. At the same time, these precipitates
areevenly distributed. All this is benecial to improve
themechanical properties of the alloy. In addition, when theageing
temperature is 180°C, the precipitates observed
showed a higher volume fraction than that of the hardenedand
quenched alloy that has returned to 320°C. Compared tothe
microstructure of dierent ageing conditions, along withthe ageing
temperature increase, the quantity of the coarseequilibrium
precipitates also increased. It is not conducive toimprovement in
the mechanical properties, which is con-sistent with other reported
studies [22–24].
3.3.E�ectofAgeingTemperatureon theMechanicalProperties.�e
variation curves of the ageing microhardness of the alloyin various
pressure levels are shown in Figure 7. As can beseen from the
curves, the peak microhardness increases atrst and then decreases
as ageing temperature increasesunder the dierent pressures. �e
hardness peak is attainedwhen ageing at 180°C for 6 h. �e hardening
achieved isattributed to the formation of GP zones and the
precipitationof phase θ′ [17]. �e 2017A aluminum alloy has now
begunto nucleate heterogeneously on dislocations, as the
homo-genously nucleated GP zones have developed within
thedislocation-free volumes of the alloy. �us, the micro-structure
was found to consist of a high density CuAl2 (θ′) inthe α-Al matrix
[25, 26]. In this case, the dislocations will
θ-Al2Cu
α-Al
Al12(FeMnCu)3Si
10 μm
(a)
Al12(FeMnCu)3Si
θ-Al2Cu α-Al
10 μm
(b)
Figure 3: SEM micrographs of 2017A alloy under 90MPa squeeze
pressure: (a) as-cast state; (b) after T6 heat treatment.
Inte
nsity
(a.u
.)
2θ (°)50454035302520
α-Al θ-Al2Cu Al12(FeMnCu)3Si
(a)
2θ (°)
Inte
nsity
(a.u
.)
50454035302520
α-Al θ-Al2Cu Al12(FeMnCu)3Si
(b)
Figure 4: XRD patterns of the 90MPa squeeze pressure in the (a)
as-cast state and (b) after T6 heat treatment.
4 Advances in Materials Science and Engineering
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0MPa
100 μm
As-
quen
ched
(a)
100 μm
90MPa
As-
quen
ched
(b)
Figure 6: Continued.
100μm
(a)
100μm
(b)
100μm
(c)
100μm
(d)
Figure 5: Microstructure of 2017A alloy in as-cast conditions:
(a) P � 0MPa, (b) P � 30MPa, (c) P � 60MPa, and (d) P � 90MPa.
Advances in Materials Science and Engineering 5
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shear these precipitates by destroying their order.
Indeed,generally the precipitates oppose the phenomena of
sliding,which explain the increase of microhardness. In
ageingtreatment at 210°C, the microhardness of the alloy
increasesrapidly to a peak in a shorter time. �erefore, the
secondpeak occurs, and with the extension of ageing time,
themicrohardness of the alloy declines due to overageing.Ageing of
the test samples has been carried out at tem-peratures of 180°C.
Every ageing temperature reached twopeaks. �is is called the
“double peaks” phenomenon.
Between these two peaks, there is a remarkable decrease
ofmicrohardness. For temperatures above 320°C, the micro-hardness
increases again. �is increase is apparently relatedto high
concentration of the solute atoms in the aluminummatrix. �is can
precipitate during cooling, which leads tohigh microhardness
values.
Results of tensile tests for the samples in the as-cast
state,as-quenched state, and dierent ageing time at 180°C and320°C
after the solution treatment at 500°C for 8 h aresummarized in
Figures 8 and 9. As can be noticed from
100 μm
0MPa
Age
d at
180
°C in
6h
(c)
100 μm
90MPa
Age
d at
180
°C in
6h
(d)
100 μm
0MPa
Age
d at
320
°C in
6h
(e)
100 μm
90MPa
Age
d at
320
°C in
6h
(f )
Figure 6: Optical micrographs of the 2017A alloy in heat
treatment conditions.
65707580859095
100105
35 85 135 170 190 225 275 310 330 375
Mic
roha
rdne
ss (H
V)
Temperature (°C)
0 MPa30 MPa
60 MPa90 MPa
Figure 7: Graphical representation of microhardness values of
alloy in heat treatment conditions with various pressures.
6 Advances in Materials Science and Engineering
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Figure 8, the gravity cast specimens have the lowest
ultimatetensile stress (UTS) and yield stress (YS) compared
withsamples when squeeze pressure from 90MPa is applied.Evidently,
the tensile properties of the alloy are obviouslyimproved because
of the application of pressure. Actually, thestrength of the alloy
can be in£uenced by the grain size, thedistribution, morphology as
well as the intermetallic phases.
�e improvement of mechanical properties results es-sentially
from the microstructure renement produced bythe squeeze pressure
during solidication. Furthermore, anincrease of applied pressure
contributes to the increase insolidication temperature of the
alloy, which bringsundercooling in a superheated alloy and
increases nucle-ation ratio in the melt, resulting in a ner grain
size [27–31].
�e results of the heat treatment conditions showedhigher values
for tensile properties than the as-cast condi-tion. For instance,
in the case of this alloy, the ageingtemperature at 180°C for 6 h
leads to an increase in the YSand UTS of the squeeze cast samples
from 107 to 218MPaand 215 to 296MPa, respectively. Also, an obvious
im-provement in elongation compared with the values in the
as-quenched state and ageing temperature was observed at320°C at 6
h. �is variation is associated with the homog-enization of solute
atoms and the variation of the dissolution
of intermetallics. After ageing treatment, due to the
pre-cipitation of nanosize phases, the strength especially (YS)
issignicantly improved and the elongation decreases. Fur-thermore,
the eect of microstructural coarseness on themechanical properties
is re£ected by comparing the tensileproperties of each step. In
fact, the tensile properties vary as afunction of the morphology
and the size of the micro-structural constituents as well as
porosity. �e present re-sults are conrmed by Barhoumi et al. [32],
Tao et al. [21],and Jahangiri et al. [33]. As a result, the
research conrmedthat squeeze casting technique and the T6 heat
treatmentwith ageing at 180°C at 6h has the potential to enhance
thequality of casted parts.
4. Conclusion
�e following conclusions are established for eect of ap-plied
pressure and ageing treatments on microstructure andthe mechanical
properties of squeeze casting 2017A alloy:
(1) �e dierential calorimetric study shows us thetransformations
of the dierent phases dissolved inthe α-Al matrix. �e results have
shown that theapplication of pressure (90MPa) has a signicanteect
on the morphology of the phases. On the otherhand, the morphology
of T6 heat treatment variesremarkably according to the ageing
temperature.
(2) �e microstructure was altered with the ageingtreatment.
Also, it was observed that the precipitatephases dispersed denser
in structure with the in-creasing of the ageing temperature. In
fact, theprecipitates observed show a higher volume fractionin
ageing at 180°C than as-quenched conditions andageing at 320°C.
�ese results are validated by tensiletests that are in good
agreement with the results ofmicrohardness and optical
microstructure.
Data Availability
No data were used to support this study.
92
153
107
215
125
200 199
278
175
219 218
296
88
175
121
276
YS (MPa) UTS (MPa) YS (MPa) UTS (MPa)Gravity Squeeze casting
As-castAs-quenched
Aging at 180°CAging at 320°C
Figure 8: YS and UTS of the gravity die cast and the squeeze
cast alloy under 90MPa pressure in the dierent treatment
conditions.
0.82
1.7
0.4
2.52.35 2.21.85
3.1
As-cast As-quenched Aging at 180°C Aging at 320°C
GravitySqueeze casting
Figure 9: Elongation (%) of the gravity cast and the squeeze
castalloy under 90MPa pressure in the dierent treatment
conditions.
Advances in Materials Science and Engineering 7
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Conflicts of Interest
*e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
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