The role of cooling rate in the microstructure of Al-Fe-Si alloy with high Fe and Si contents

The present study examines the effect of solidification rate on the type and morphology of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) of Al-based alloy with high Fe and Si contents in a wide cooling rate range of 1-100 K/s. It was found that the final microstructure of Al-14wt.% Fe-2wt.% Si alloy mostly depends upon the solidification rate, which suggests that different solidification rates produced dissimilar microstructures. The increase of cooling rate significantly affects the phase selection sequence, amount and morphology of the IMCs in Al-14wt.% Fe-2wt.% Si. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.