Modelling of Precipitation Hardening in Casting Aluminium Alloys

Precipitation hardening, or aging hardening, is one of the most widely adopted techniques for strengthening of aluminium alloys. During the precipitation process, three major mechanisms are involved: i.e. nucleation, growth and coarsening. Kampmann and Wagner have developed a powerful and flexible numerical approach (KWN model) for dealing with concomitant nucleation, growth and coarsening and thus capable of predicting the full evolution of the particle size distribution. KWN model has been successfully applied to a number of aluminium alloy systems, such as 2xxx, 6xxx and 7xxx. However, most of these modelling works were focused on the wrought aluminium alloys, few had applied to the casting aluminium alloys. In the present modelling work, the microstructure evolution is modeled based on the KWN model and then a strength model based on the well established dislocation theory is used to evaluate the resulting change in hardness or yield strength at room temperature. Then the modelling is applied to casting aluminium alloys A356 and A357. And the modelling results are validated by comparing with own experimental results and the results obtained from the open literature.