Stress-Strain Predictions of Semisolid Al-Mg-Mn Alloys During Direct Chill Casting: Effects of Microstructure and Process Variables

The occurrence of hot tearing during the industrial direct chill (DC) casting process results in significant quality issues and a reduction in productivity. In order to investigate their occurrence, a new semisolid constitutive law (Phillion et al.) for AA5182 that takes into account cooling rate, grain size, and porosity has been incorporated within a DC casting finite element process model for round billets. A hot tearing index was calculated from the semisolid strain predictions from the model. This hot tearing index, along with semisolid stress-strain predictions from the model, was used to perform a sensitivity analysis on the relative effects of microstructural features (e.g., grain size, coalescence temperature) as well as process parameters (e.g., casting speed) on hot tearing. It was found that grain refinement plays an important role in the formation of hot cracks. In addition, the combination of slow casting speeds and a low temperature for mechanical coalescence was found to improve hot tearing resistance.