Materials and Design 40 (2012) 541–549

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Materials and Design

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Comparison of mechanical properties and microstructure of AZ91D alloy

motorcycle wheels formed by die casting and double control forming
Jufu Jiang a, Ying Wang b,⇑, Gang Chen a, Jun Liu a, Yuanfa Li c, Shoujing Luo a
a
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China
b
School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China
c
Mg Technology (Shen Zhen) Co. Ltd. of Ka Shui Group, Shen Zhen 518111, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A double control forming technology of motorcycle wheel was firstly developed to form the complex
Received 8 February 2012 parts with high mechanical properties. The mechanical properties and microstructure of the AZ91D
Accepted 13 April 2012 magnesium alloy motorcycle wheels formed by double control forming and die casting was compared.
Available online 21 April 2012
The results of numerical simulation showed that the velocity magnitude in wheel rib was small than that
in other positions. The pressure and temperature decreased from the wheel hub to the overflow launders.
Keywords: Large surface defect concentration indicated the oxides and entrapments existed mainly in the well-
A. Non-ferrous metals and alloys
designed overflow launders. The experimental results confirmed that the motorcycle wheel’s complex
C. Casting
C. Forging
shape can be achieved by the high-speed filling in the injection procedure and the mechanical properties
of the parts were greatly improved due to the forging pressure. It is clear from the micrographs that the
high pressure caused by forging system results in obvious grain refinement of the primary a-Mg and
uniform distribution of the eutectic consisting of the eutectic a-Mg and b-Mg17Al12. Higher mechanical
properties including ultimate tensile strength of 246 MPa, elongation of 9.5% and Vicker-hardness of
87.9 were obtained in the parts formed by double control forming due to the fine and uniform micro-
structure without defects in comparison to die casting.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction made by some researchers in the die casting fields of magnesium

Magnesium alloy is the lightest one of all metals used as
constructional alloys, which was used extensively in automobile,
motorcycle and 3C (computer, communications and consumer
electronics) fields due to the lowest density of all metallic con-
structional materials, high specific strength, good castability and
weldability, etc [1]. Friedrich and Schumann [2] reported motiva-
tion for magnesium alloy in the automotive industry and con-
cluded that lightweight design using magnesium alloy is in
competition with lightweight design using aluminum, plastic and
steel. Taguchi method was used to establish an optimal die casting
manufacturing process for magnesium alloy 3C products [3]. Bulk-
forming technologies of magnesium alloy mainly involved die
casting [4–6], forging [7] and semisolid processing [8–10], etc.
However, the casting, particularly die casting, dominates as a pro-
duction route of magnesium alloy and a large number of parts are
produced by die casting technology due to its high productivity,
high precision and high quality surface, etc. A lot of effort has been
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: School of Mechatronics Engineering, P.O. Box
450, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China. Tel.: +86
015945697615; fax: +86 86415464.
E-mail address: wangying1002@hit.edu.cn (Y. Wang).
alloy. Weiler et al. [11] studied the variability of skin thickness in
an AM60B magnesium alloy die-casting and found that regions of
different solidification conditions resulted in different skin thick-
ness measurements. The slow shot speed, the fast shot speed and
the biscuit thickness had an influence on the externally solidified
crystals [12]. Forging is also an essential forming technology of
magnesium alloy products. Though the applications of forging-
parts of magnesium alloy are less than those of die-casting parts,
forging is a good alternative production technology for forming
the simple parts with high mechanical properties. The parts
formed by forging are characterized by fine-grained microstructure
and improved mechanical properties in comparison to die casting.
Wang et al. [13] introduced a new forging processing of AZ80
magnesium alloy automobile wheels and found that AZ80 wheel
could meet application requirement in automobile industry.
Behrens and Schmidt [14] found that forged magnesium parts’
mechanical properties such as tensile strength and elongation
could be improved by optimized process parameters.
Compared to forging, die casting is easier in achieving the com-
plex magnesium alloy parts due to good filling ability of liquid
magnesium alloy. The obvious disadvantage is that high mechani-
cal properties are very difficult to be achieved in the parts formed
by die casting due to casting defects such as shrinkage voids

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2012.04.029
542 J. Jiang et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 541–549

(microporosities) and gas porosities. However, higher mechanical

properties of the magnesium alloy parts can be obtained by the
forging technology in comparison to die casting. Its disadvantage
is that the complex parts are very difficult to be obtained because
of limited filling ability of solid magnesium alloy. There is a need
to produce the complex and lightweight magnesium alloy structure
parts with high mechanical properties in automobile, motorcycle
and aerospace fields, etc. Die casting and forging do not meet the
both requirements for high mechanical properties and complex
shape. High cost of semisolid slurries imposes restrictions on the
application of semisolid processing to the magnesium alloy parts
with high mechanical properties and complex shape. Therefore,
there is a need for developing a novel technology to form more
complex magnesium alloy parts with high mechanical properties.
In the present research, a novel double control forming technol-
ogy of magnesium alloy motorcycle will be firstly proposed. It is
expected to obtain the complex magnesium alloy parts with high
mechanical properties. In addition, it is attempting to make com-
parisons on the microstructure and mechanical properties of parts
formed by double control forming and die casting.

2. Experimental procedure

The AZ91D was used as the experimental material. The chemi-

cal composition was measured by the photoelectric direct-reading
spectrograph, PDA-5500S produced by Shimadzu. It contains a
composition of 9.03% Al, 0.73% Zn, 0.205% Mn, 0.001% Be, 0.002
Si, 0.001% Cu, 0.001% Fe, 0.0003% Ni and Mg balance (mass frac-
tion). A new machine named ‘‘double control forming (DCF) ma-
chine’’ was employed to form the AZ91D magnesium alloy parts
[15]. An electrical resistance furnace with gas shield and quantita-
tive pouring devices were used as melting and pouring of AZ91D
magnesium alloy. AZ91D magnesium alloy was melt under a pro-
tective atmosphere containing N2 (99.5 wt.%) and SF6 (0.5 wt.%).
The quantitative pouring procedure could be realized by the screw
pump installed on the electrical resistance furnace. The injection
Fig. 1. The three-dimension modeling of the motorcycle wheel part and cutting
pressure was 700 kN and mode-locking pressure was 8000 kN. positions of samples for measuring mechanical properties and observing the
The ‘‘AODE’’ die preheating equipment was employed to preheat microstructure.
the die to 210 °C. The pouring temperature was set to 675 °C and
the plunger velocity in the second phase was 2 m/s. The forging
force e was set to 4000 kN. A typical motorcycle wheel part was properties under the same process parameters. Vickers-hardness
used as forming object. Fig. 1a shows the three-dimension model- was determined using either a micro tester. A load of 1 kgf was
ing of the motorcycle wheel part. Flow-3D software was used in applied in the measurement of the Vickers-hardness test. The
the numerical simulation of the high-speed filling process of liquid microstructural samples were cut from the positions marked with
AZ91D magnesium alloy. The commercial software Pro-E was S1, S2, S7 and S8 (Fig. 1a). Microstructure samples were fabricated
employed to establish geometrical models of motorcycle wheel by the standard metallurgical technique, followed by etching in a
with overflow launders, as shown in Fig. 1b. Then, it was imported solution of 4.2 g picronitric acid, 10 ml ethanediol, 70 ml ethanol
into the Flow-3D by means of ‘.stl’ model format file. The starting and 10 ml distilled water. The microstructure of the parts was
parameters of numerical simulation involved the pouring temper- observed by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an
ature of 675 °C, die temperature of 210 °C, the plunger velocity of energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX). X-ray diffraction
2 m/s and thermal conductivity of 79.5 W/(mK). The materials (XRD) was used to determine phases of the formed parts.
model of AZ91D magnesium alloy was selected from the materials
database of Flow-3D.
Twenty motorcycles wheels were formed by double control 3. Results and discussion
forming (DCF). In order to compare the mechanical properties
and microstructure, 20 parts also were formed by die casting 3.1. Novel concept of double control forming of motorcycle wheel
(DC) under the same process parameters. The tensile samples were
cut from the S2, S3, S4, S5 and S6 positions (Fig. 1a). The tensile Fig. 2 shows the schematic plan of double control forming tech-
mechanical properties were measured according to ASTM, B557 nology of AZ91D alloy motorcycle wheel. The key idea of DCF is to
M-94 [16] using an INSTRON 5582 universal testing machine. In add a forging system to a cold-chamber die casting machine to
order to measure accurately the mechanical properties of every remove the casting defects of the formed parts. There were four
part, the mean values of mechanical properties of five samples procedures in the DCF process. Injection (Fig. 2a), forging
cut from the same part were calculated and used as the final values (Fig. 2b), the first parting (Fig. 2c) and the second parting (Fig. 2d)
of mechanical properties of this part. Moreover, the mean values of are involved in the DCF process. During the injection procedure
the 20 parts were considered as the final values of mechanical (Fig. 2a), quantitative melt (liquid magnesium alloy) was poured
 J. Jiang et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 541–549 543

Fig. 2. Schematic plan of double control forming (DCF) technology of motorcycle wheel. It involves four procedures including (a) injection, (b) forging, (c) the first parting and
(d) the second parting and the practical die device of AZ91D alloy motorcycle wheel (e). The parts in the schematic plan refer to injection sleeve 1, injection piston 2, fixed die
half 3, female die mounting part 4, female die 5, moving die mounting part 7, male die 8, moving die pad 9 forging bar 10, hydraulic forging cylinder11, carrier rod 12, carrier
rod pad 13, moving plate 14, pouring position 15, guide sleeve 16, guide sleeve 17, guide pillars 18 and forging position 19.

into injection sleeve 1 at the location 15 by means of the screw
pump. Then, the melt was injected into die cavity consisting of
female die part 5 and male die part 8 by means of the injection pis-
ton 2. A 2 mm forging stroke is designed at location 19. The injec-
tion procedure was followed by the forging procedure (Fig. 2b).
The hydraulic forging cylinder 11 pushed male die 8 to forge the
partially solidified melt by means of the forging bar 10. After that,
the moving die system moved back and the first parting procedure
occurred at A–A position. The runner systems were removed from
the formed part by using a hydraulic cutting device. During the
second parting procedure, moving die systems continuously moved
back, the second parting occurred at the B–B position. Finally, the
formed component 6 was pulled out by means of liftout systems.
In DCF machine, the forging procedure can be controlled by the
‘‘on/off forging’’ button on the screen of controlling unit. If the ‘‘off
forging’’ was pressed, the function of DCF was the same to DC. DCF
possesses both advantages of the DC and forging. High-speed filling
can be realized in the injection procedure, in which the complex
parts can be successfully formed. Densifying the microstructure
of the parts is performed by the following forging procedure.
Fig. 2e shows the macrographs of the DCF die device of AZ91D mo-
torcycle wheel. As to the motorcycle’s wheel, high-speed filling
544 J. Jiang et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 541–549

Fig. 3. Numerical simulation of high-speed filling process including (a) surface defect concentration, (b) velocity magnitude, (c) pressure and (d) temperature.

was started from wheel hub and forging procedure was performed
at the wheel rib location by using five slide forging cores of wheel
ribs.
3.2. Numerical simulation of high-speed filling process
Numerical simulation of high-speed filling process prior to forg-
ing procedure was done by means of Flow-3D software. Fig. 3 shows
the results of numerical simulation of high-speed filling process.
Surface defect concentration was used as describing the effect of
oxides and entrapments existing in front free surface of melt in
the high-speed filling process. As indicated in Fig. 3a, the surface
defect concentration was large in the overflow launders, which
indicated the oxides and entrapments mainly existed in overflow
launders. It was demonstrated that the overflow launders were very
well designed to make the oxides and entrapments mainly exist in
overflow launders. As indicated in Fig. 3b, the velocity magnitude in
wheel rib was smaller than that in other positions. It is due to large
volume and section area of wheel rib’s cavity. The velocity magni-
tude in wheel hub was large because of large initial velocity of melt.
In addition, the velocity magnitude in wheel rim and overflow laun-
ders also large. The narrow section area in the contacting position
between wheel rib and wheel rim leads to increase of velocity mag-
nitude. The velocity magnitude ranges from 0.1 m/s to 1 m/s. Fig. 3c
and d shows the distribution of pressure and temperature during
the high-speed filling process. As indicated in Fig. 3c, the pressure
decreased from the wheel hub to the overflow launders. When
the melt is injected into the cavity from the gate, the pressure is
reduced due to the resisting force such as friction force. Moreover,
it was found that the decreasing extent of the pressure during the
high-speed filling process was large. The pressure in wheel hub
was about 250 MPa and the pressure in overflow launders was
about 140 MPa. The decreasing extent was about 44%. The large
decreasing extent will lead to some defects such as shrinkage voids
because the pressure is too low to feed the liquid magnesium alloy
into shrinkage void. As a result, the shrinkage voids exists in the
microstructure of the motorcycle wheel, leading to reduction of
mechanical properties. If an additional forging force is performed
on the wheel rib, the microstructure is densified by the forging
pressure and the defect can be removed from the microstructure,
leading to enhancement of the mechanical properties of the parts.
As indicated in Fig. 3d, the temperature distribution in motorcycle
wheel was non-uniform. The temperature in the wheel hub is high-
er than that in other positions. And with the increased distance
away from the wheel hub, the temperature decreased. The highest
temperature in wheel hub was about 640 °C and the lowest temper-
ature in the overflow launders was about 610 °C. However, the
lowest temperature was still higher than the liquidus of AZ91D
magnesium alloy (about 595 °C [17]), which indicated complete
filling could be obtained. After the filling process was completed,
the temperature difference between wheel hub and overflow laun-
der was about 30 °C. The above results of numerical simulation con-
firm that high-speed filling created by injection system is feasible to
obtain the complex of motorcycle wheel in DCF process.
3.3. Comparison of mechanical properties and microstructure of the
parts formed by DC and DCF
Fig. 4 shows the macrophotographs of the parts formed by DC
and DCF. As shown in Fig. 4a, complete filling was obtained by
DC process. It was demonstrated that the requirement for the com-
plex shape of motorcycle wheel could be met by die casting. Com-
pared with the parts formed by DC, the parts formed by DCF had
some flash along the wheel ribs. It is because that when forging
 J. Jiang et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 541–549
Fig. 4. Macrophotographs of the motorcycle wheel parts formed by DC (a) and DCF (b).
force was performed on the partially or completely solidified
AZ91D magnesium alloy, the pressure caused by forging force
(forging pressure) led to overflow of slurries or solid material from
the gap between the moving die and middle die. Furthermore, it
could be found that the smoother surface was found in the wheel
rib of the parts formed by DCF in comparison to DC. After the par-
tially slurries solidified, some plastic deformation occurred in the
solidified part due to the forging pressure. Plastic deformation
caused by forging pressure led to the good surface quality of the
parts formed by DCF.
Fig. 5 shows the mechanical properties of the parts formed by
DCF and DC, respectively. As indicated in Fig. 5a and b, the ulti-
mate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation of the parts formed
by DCF were all greatly improved in comparison to DC. The
mechanical properties of the motorcycle wheels formed by DCF
are close to those of the parts formed by high-pressure die-casting
(HPDC) [17,18]. However, the mechanical properties of the parts
formed by HPDC process are affected by the casting defects such
as shrinkage voids (microporosities). When the fraction of the
shrinkage voids in the parts formed by HPDC is more than 10%,
the mechanical properties of the parts formed by HPDC are less
than those of the parts formed by DCF [18]. Furthermore, com-
pared with DC, all the values of UTS in 20 parts formed by DCF
were all greatly increased by more than 70 MPa (Fig. 5c). The max-
imum increment of UTS approximates 124.8 MPa. The mean value
545
of UTS of the parts formed by DCF and DC is about 246 MPa and
151.7 MPa, respectively. The increasing extent of mean UTS in
DCF was 38.3% in comparison to DC. The UTS of the motorcycle
wheel formed by DC is close to the results reported in literature
[19]. It also confirms that the UTS of the parts formed by DCF
are greatly enhanced in comparison to DC. Elongation of the parts
formed by DCF was also greatly enhanced in comparison to DC
(Fig. 5b). The increment of elongation ranged from 2.8% to 6%
(Fig. 5c). The average value of elongation of the parts formed by
DCF and DC was 9.5% and 5.2%, respectively. The increasing extent
of elongation reached 82.7%. Fig. 5d shows the Vickers-hardness of
the parts formed by DCF and DC. The Vickers-hardness was mea-
sured at the positions ranging from S1 to S8. It can be found that
the Vickers-hardness of the parts formed by DCF was higher than
that of the parts formed by DC. The values of the parts formed by
DCF were varied from 85.2 to 91.5 and the values of the parts
formed by DC were varied from 74.1 to 78.9. The mean Vicker-
hardness of the part formed by DCF and DC is 87.9 and 75.9 and
increasing extent reaches 15.9%. The Vickers-hardness of the mo-
torcycle wheel formed by DC was close to those in literature
[20]. It also confirms that the Vickers-hardness of the parts formed
by DCF was improved than that of the parts formed by DC. The
results of mechanical properties confirm that DCF is a desirable
technology for forming the motorcycle wheels of AZ91D magne-
sium alloy.
546 J. Jiang et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 541–549

Fig. 5. The mechanical properties of the parts formed by DCF and DC involving (a) UTS, (b) elongation, (c) increments of UTS and elongation and (d) Vickers-hardness.

Fig. 6. The SEM microstructure of the parts formed by DC in (a) S1, (b) S2, (c) S7 and (d) S8 positions. The lightest areas are b-Mg17Al12 and the darkest areas are the primary
a-Mg. The gray areas are high Al content ‘‘eutectic’’ a-Mg.
 J. Jiang et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 541–549 547

Fig. 6 shows the SEM microstructure of the parts formed by DC.

As shown in Fig. 6, some shrinkage voids and gas porosities were
found in the microstructure of the parts formed by DC. Further-
more, shrinkage voids and gas porosities can be all found in S1,
S2, S7 and S8 positions. The casting defects such as shrinkage voids
and gas porosities can reduce the mechanical properties of the
parts formed by DC (Fig. 5). When the external force was per-
formed on the parts, fracture occurs easier in the position with
defects than in other positions without defects, leading to reduc-
tion of the mechanical properties. Furthermore, a larger number
of the shrinkage voids with small size were found in the wheel
hub (S2 position) in comparison to the other positions such as
S1, S7, S8. Gas porosities were found in the position near to rim
(S7) and rim position (S8). EDX was carried out in the position indi-
cated in Fig. 6a. The result of EDX is shown in Fig. 7a. As indicated
in Fig. 7a, the phase consists of Mg, Al and Zn elements. Zinc, which
is present in the common commercial magnesium alloy AZ91, seg-
regates strongly to the b-Mg17Al12 [21]. The segregation of Zinc has
been demonstrated by the result of Fig. 7a. Furthermore, the XRD
analysis of the sample (Fig. 7b) shows the microstructure consists
of a-Mg and b-Mg17Al12. Therefore, it can be concluded that the
phase is the intermetallic b-Mg17Al12. According to the result of
XRD, it concludes that the microstructure of the parts consists of
a-Mg and b-Mg17Al12. b-Mg17Al12 phase distributes along the grain
boundary of the primary dendrite. It is due to non-equilibrium
solidification occurring in die casting process. If the melt solidifies
in equilibrium conditions, the equilibrium microstructure for
AZ91D magnesium alloy is 100% a-Mg. However, non-equilibrium,
metastable, the eutectic normally forms [22]. The velocity of heat
Fig. 7. EDX spectra (a) and XRD (b) pattern of the motorcycle wheel of AZ91D
exchange between liquid magnesium alloy and die is accelerated
magnesium alloy by diecasting.

Fig. 8. SEM microstructure of the motorcycle wheel of AZ91D magnesium alloy formed by DCF in (a) S1, (b) S2, (c) S7 and (d) S8 positions.
548 J. Jiang et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 541–549
due to the injection pressure. In other words, the cooling rate in-
creases during DC process, leading to the non-equilibrium solidifi-
cation. As a result, the ‘‘eutectic’’ a-Mg with high Al content is
remained at the room temperature, as shown in Fig. 6d. According
to the report in literature [22], the magnesium alloys with alumi-
num contents less than about 10 wt.% Al (i.e. commercial alloys)
exhibit eutectic morphologies that are generally fully or partially
divorced. The results of the parts formed by DC are close to the
report in literature [22]. Two eutectic phases, i.e. eutectic a-Mg
and b-Mg17Al12, are completely separated in the microstructure.
b-Mg17Al12 particles surrounded by ‘eutectic’ a-Mg exist in the
interdendritic regions. The primary dendrites are surrounded by
the eutectic a-Mg. Some primary dendrites have obvious second
arms and the other dendrites have no obvious second arms. The
length of the second arms in some dendrites is small.
Fig. 8 shows the microstructure of the parts formed by DCF. The
obviously different microstructure leads to the difference in
mechanical properties of the parts formed by DCF and DC. The
microstructure of the parts formed by DCF is characterized by
three characteristics. The first is that microstructure consists of a
large number of fine a-Mg equiaxed grains. The high forging pres-
sure created by forging system of DCF machine leads to obvious
increase of supercooling degree in the melt [23]. The increasing
supercooling degree makes the alloy solidify further away from
equilibrium solidification, leading to the number of successful
nucleation events in the melt [21,24]. As a result, the microstruc-
ture was well refined by the high forging pressure. The grain size
of the microstructure is very fine. The second is that the micro-
structure is very uniform. A refined microstructure also leads to a
more uniform distribution of the primary a-Mg equiaxed grains,
‘eutectic’ a-Mg and secondary phase (b-Mg17Al12). The maximum
Fig. 9. The fracture morphology of the motorcycle wheel formed by (a) DC and (b) DCF.
grain size of the primary a-Mg equiaxed grain is less than
50 lm. Only a few dendrites and coarse grains can be found in
the position S1 and S 3, i.e. the position near to wheel hub and
rim. The microstructure in S2 position is most uniform among
the S1, S2, S3 and S4 positions. The high forging pressure has a
largest influence on the microstructure in S2 position among these
four positions. Therefore, the grain size is finest and the micro-
structure is most uniform. The eutectic consisting of the eutectic
a-Mg and b-Mg17Al12 is distributed along the primary equiaxed
grains. The b-Mg17Al12 uniformly exists in the eutectic a-Mg. The
third is that there are no casting defects such as shrinkage voids
and gas porosities in the microstructure. The shrinkage voids and
gas porosities are removed from the microstructure due to the high
forging pressure. When shrinkage voids and gas porosities oc-
curred in the microstructure during the high-speed filling course,
they were welded together under the forging-pressure. The
mechanical properties of the parts formed by DCF are greatly
improved due to the fine and uniform microstructure without
defects.
Fig. 9 shows the fracture morphology of the parts formed by DCF
and DC. As indicated in Fig. 9a, the morphology of the fracture of the
parts formed by DC is very irregular. A non-fracture zone was found
in the A location. This is furthermore evidenced in the high magni-
fication SEM images (Fig. 9b). This non-fracture zone is the location
of the shrinkage void. When the external force is performed on the
sample, the crack originates in this position and propagates rapidly
until the fracture. It is demonstrated that high mechanical proper-
ties are very difficult to be obtained in the parts formed by DC due
to defects such as shrinkage voids. The fracture of the parts formed
by DCF exhibits regular microstructure morphology in comparison
to DC (Fig. 9c). Many dimples were found in the high magnification
 J. Jiang et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 541–549
SEM images (Fig. 9d). It is confirmed that the fracture of the parts
formed by DCF is characterized by ductile fracture, resulting in
the increase of elongation and UTS.
4. Conclusions
A novel double control forming (DCF) technology of motorcycle
wheel is firstly proposed, in which the forging system is added into
cold-chamber die-casting machine to densify the microstructure
and remove the casting defects by means of the forging pressure.
The mechanical properties of the parts formed by DCF were greatly
enhanced in comparison to die casting due to the refined and den-
sified microstructure. Three conclusions were drawn as follow:
(1) Four main procedures including injection, forging, the first
parting and the second parting are involved in the DCF pro-
cess. The numerical simulation of motorcycle wheel showed
that the velocity magnitude in wheel rib was smaller than
that in other positions. The pressure and temperature
decreased from the wheel hub to the overflow launders.
Large surface defect concentration indicated the oxides and
entrapments existed mainly in the well-designed overflow
launders.
(2) The experimental results of DCF show that the motorcycle
wheel’s complex shape can be achieved by the high-speed
filling in the injection procedure and the mechanical proper-
ties of the parts can greatly improved by the forging pressure.
Compared with die casting, higher mechanical properties
including UTS of 246 MPa, elongation of 9.5% and Vicker-
hardness of 87.9 can be obtained in the parts formed by DCF.
(3) Some obvious shrinkage voids and gas porosities were found
in the microstructure of the parts formed by DC. The micro-
structure of the parts formed by DCF consists of fine and uni-
form equiaxed grains and no defects were found in it. The
mechanical properties of the parts formed by DCF were
greatly improved due to the fine and uniform microstructure
without defects. The non-fracture, i.e. location of shrinkage
voids, was found in the fracture of the parts formed by DC.
However, the morphology of the fracture of the parts formed
by DCF exhibits the ductile fracture which demonstrated the
improvement of UTS and elongation.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (NSFC) under Grant No.51075099, the Natural Science
Foundation of the Hei Longjiang Province under the Grant No.
E201038, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under the
Grant No. 20090460884, the Fundamental Research Funds for the
Central Universities under the Grant No. HIT.NSRIF.2012038, the
Harbin City Young Scientists Foundation under the Grant No.
2011RFQXG010 and the Specially Postdoctoral Science Foundation
of Hei Longjiang Province under Grant No. LBH-T1102.
549
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