Microstructure Refinement for Fe-34Mn-10Al-0.76C Alloy Using Variable Pulsing Magnetic Field (PMF) Solidification

Abstract

Background: The effect of the pulsed electromagnetic fields with different fluxes (voltages) on the microstructure of an alloy during all stages of solidification under specified thermal conditions will be discussed in this project. Experiments were carried out in the university laboratory for this purpose. The optical scanning, electron microscopy scanning, and dispersed X-ray analysis methods were used to analyze the results of the micro-solidification formulations of the alloy with different fluxes. To perform the required evaluation, a control sample was tested without any treatment, then the results of every flux were compared with the results of this control sample. The applied magnetics flux and Lorentz forces were considered as the main reasons for the achieved grain refining and diffusion of the improved solubility in the sample. The fully equiaxed dendritic structure has been realized for the aluminum alloys at 180 Volts flux. Lorentz's strong force, induced by the magnetic field, deactivates the developing direction of the bifurcation (dendrites), as well as spoils the directions of growing the intermetallic alloy, as a result of the formation of solid microstructures. Further refinements were achieved, by increasing the voltages. Therefore, it can be concluded that the pulsed electromagnetic field is a promising technique that can be utilized in the metallurgy evolution. The effect of PMF with different fluxes on the microstructure of the Fe-34Mn-10Al-0.76C alloy samples will be examined experimentally using optical scanning, EDX and SEM and by applying various analysis techniques. Then, compared with the control sample that don’t treated with any PMF. The initial dendrites growth direction and size were changed according to the PMF flux. Also, the lengths of the initial dendrites were reduced by increasing the voltage, which led to the formation of different dendrite equiaxed grains. The PMF flux affects the initial dendrites growth direction and size. While, increasing the PMF voltage reduces the lengths of the initial dendrites. Moreover, the PMF has a great impact on diffusion of solute through solidification that then influences the formation of eutectic microstructural.