APPLICATIONS OF THERMO-CALC

Magnesium

Thermo-Calc can be used to predict thermophysical and phase-based properties and simulate material behavior for magnesium alloys including the Mg-Al based alloys, Mg-Zn-Zr alloys, Mg-RE (rare earth)-Zn alloys, and Mg-RE-Zr alloys.

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Solutions for Magnesium

There are a large number of commercial magnesium alloys of industrial relevance, including the Mg-Al based alloys such as AZ, AE, AJ, AM, AS, and AX; Mg-Zn-Zr alloys such as ZK60; Mg-RE (rare earth)-Zn (EZ) alloys; and Mg-RE-Zr alloys such as WE.

Handbook data typically covers only the most common alloys, and additionally does not always take into account variations in chemistry or processing conditions. Where this data is missing, Thermo-Calc can be used to generate the materials property data and make predictions of material behavior throughout the materials life cycle.

Calculate the following based on your actual alloy chemistry:

Thermophysical properties, such as:

Specific heat, enthalpy, latent heat, density as a function of temperature, coefficients of thermal expansion, and more
Phase-based properties, such as:

Critical transformation temperatures such as solvus temperatures of precipitates, amounts and compositions of phases, solubility limits, activities, phase diagrams, and more
Equilibrium and non-equilibrium solidification, such as:

Liquidus, solidus, incipient melt temperatures, freezing range, fraction solid curves, solidification path, fraction eutectic, microsegregation, partition coefficients, latent heat, shrinkage, and more
Homogenization:

Optimal homogenization temperatures, time needed to homogenize any chemical segregation arising from solidification, and/or dissolve precipitates
Precipitation hardening:

Concurrent nucleation, growth/dissolution, coarsening of precipitate phases, volume fraction, and size distribution as a function of time

Properties that Can Be Calculated with Thermo-Calc

Application Examples

Thermo-Calc has many applications to Mg-based alloys. Below are two such examples.

Predicting Secondary Phases Formed during Casting of AZ91

AZ91 is a series of the most important die casting Mg alloys. The typical microstructures of the solidified AZ91 alloys usually consist of (Mg) grains and mainly the Al₁₂Mg₁₇ phase at the grain boundaries [Kabirian and Mahmudi, Metall Mater Trans A 40, 2190–2201 (2009) and Wang et al, Acta Mater. 54, 689–699 (2006)]. Similar microstructures are observed in other AZ series alloys [Wu et al, Trans. Nonferrous Met. Soc. China. 21, 784–789 (2011)].

The Scheil Solidification Simulation Calculator in Thermo-Calc can predict the phases formed during solidification under both rapid cooling (non-equilibrium) and slow cooling (equilibrium) conditions. The figure shows the total fraction of all solid phases as a function of temperature for AZ91, where the solid line corresponds to the non-equilibrium Scheil calculation and the dashed line to equilibrium. As can be seen, the calculation predicts the formation of three Al-Mn compounds, Al₈Mn₅, Al₁₁Mn₄, and Al₄Mn, in addition to the experimentally observed phases, hcp_A3-(Mg) and Al₁₂Mg₁₇.

$A plot showing the total fraction of all solid phases as a function of temperature for AZ91, calculated using the Scheil calculator in Thermo-Calc.$

Improving High-temperature Properties of Mg-based Alloys for Hot Component Applications

Improving high-temperature properties of Mg-based alloys is crucial for hot component applications. Among these, Mg–Sn–Sr alloys show strong potential for enhanced creep resistance. Sr and Sn can combine to form MgSnSr, which is a thermally stable intermetallic phase. Rare earth element additions such as Ce, Y, and Gd can further improve mechanical properties. Yang et al., 2014 found that adding 1% Ce, Y, or Gd to Mg–3Sn–2Sr (all wt.%) refined coarse MgSnSr phases, enhancing tensile and creep performance. Moreover, Ce provided the highest tensile strength, and RE-specific intermetallics—Mg₁₂Ce, MgSnY, and GdMgSn—were observed.

The figure shows the equilibrium phase fraction for the Mg–3Sn–2Sr–1Ce (wt%) alloy, calculated using the Equilibrium Calculator and Magnesium-based Alloys Database in Thermo-Calc. The existence of all predicted phases is confirmed by Yang et al., 2014.

$A plot showing the phase fraction as a function of temperature for a Mg-Sn-Sr-Ce alloy.$

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