Measurement of Lattice Parameter of Primary Si crystal in Rheocast Hypereutectic Al-Si Alloy by Convergent Beam Electron Diffraction Technique
The morphological changes of primary solid particles as a function of process time on hypereutectic Al-15.5wt%Si alloy during semi-solid state processing with a shear rate of are studied. In this alloy, it was observed that primary Si crystals are fragmented at the early stage of stirring and morphologies of primary Si crystals change from faceted to spherical during isothermal shearing for 60 minutes. To understand the role of Al dissolved in the primary Si crystal by shear stress at high temperature, lattice parameters of the primary Si crystals are determined as a variation of high order Laue zone(HOLZ) line positions measured from convergent beam electron diffraction(CBED) pattern. The lattice parameter of the primary Si crystal in the rheocast Al-15.5wt%Si alloy shows tensile strain of about 5 times greater than that of the gravity casting. Increase of the lattice parameter by rheocasting is due to the increased amount of Al dissolved in the primary Si crystal accelerated by shear stress at high temperature. The amounts of solute Al in the primary Si crystal are measured quantitatively by EPMA method to confirm the CBED analysis.