Producing high-strength deformable aluminum alloys of type AMg10
Traditional grades of aluminum alloys do not always meet the requirements of modern aerospace engineer­ing. Al-Si foundry alloys possess insufficient mechanical strength characteristics and low plasticity due to their structural features (coarse brittle silicon inclusions and intermetallic phases). Therefore they cannot be exposed to pressure treatment. A technique for producing high-strength aluminum alloys, which consists in obtaining ring blanks by means of direct crys­tallization of melts with application of non-stationary centrifugal force fields and simultaneous introduction of modifiers, is proposed. The microstructure and plasticity of resulting tube-shaped blanks allow them to be exposed to sheeting for subse­quent production of pipe workpieces with mechanical strength commensurate with mechanical strength of structural steel. The technique involves hydrothermal synthesis of nanostructured particles of aluminum oxide, which are overheated above the melt temperature prior to introduction into the molten aluminum alloy. This procedure enhances the processes of inter-crystalline hardening with minimal fluctuations of internal stresses within the hardened material. The materials have tensile strength of up to 380 MPa (before modification by nanodispersed aluminum oxide it was 210 MPa). The microstructure has showed changes in the acicular dendrite component, which tends to become more dispersed and equiaxial. Eventually this leads to an increase in the mechanical strength by a factor of 1.25-1.32.