On effect of FSP on microstructural and

mechanical characteristics of A390

hypereutectic Al–Si alloy
T. S. Mahmoud*1, O. M. Shaban2, H. M. Zakaria1 and T. A. Khalifa1
In the present article, the effect of friction stir processing (FSP) on the microstructural and
mechanical characteristics of A390 hypereutectic Al–Si alloy was studied. The effect of tool
rotational speed v, traverse speed u and the number of passes on such characteristics was
investigated. The results showed that FSP significantly improved the microstructural character-
istics of A390 Al alloy by reducing the structural defects found in the as cast alloy such as porosity
and the size of a-Al primary grains as well as the size of the primary Si particles. The size of Si
particulates was found to be reduced by reducing the tool rotational speed, increasing tool
traverse speed and increasing the number of FSP passes.
Keywords: Friction stir processing, Microstructure, Aluminium alloys

Introduction reported; however, these alloys such as A390 exhibit

Friction stir processing (FSP) is a solid state processing
technique that has attracted a great attention in the last
few years.1 Also, it has been demonstrated to be an
effective mean of refining the structure of both
aluminium and magnesium based alloys.2–4 In FSP, a
specially designed rotating cylindrical tool, consisting of
a pin and a shoulder, is plunged into a metal plate. The
tool is then traversed in the desired direction. During
FSP, the metal is exposed to a combination of intense
plastic deformation, mixing and thermal exposure,
resulting in a modified microstructure characterised by
a fine and equiaxed grain structure.
It is well established that there are many factors
controlling the final structure obtained from FSP, such
as tool rotational speed v, tool feed rate u, tool geo-
metry, number of processing passes and the nature of
the processed material (i.e. alloy type, initial micro-
structure, heat treatment, etc.).1,5 Despite the large
number of investigations carried out to study the effect
of FSP factors on the mechanical and microstructural
properties of the alloys, the complete understanding
of the effect of the FSP factors and their interaction
is not yet well understood and still needs further
investigations.
Most of the investigations conducted in the field of
FSP of Al alloys focused on both wrought Al alloys2–5
and cast hypoeutectic Al–Si alloys.6–8 Until now, the
effect of FSP on the mechanical and microstructural
properties of hypereutectic Al–Si alloys was not
1
Mechanical Engineering Department, Shoubra Faculty of Engineering,
Benha University, Banha, Egypt
2
Industrial Education Department, Faculty of Education, Helwan
University, Helwan, Egypt
*Corresponding author, email tsamir@benha-univ.edu.eg
several very specific and interesting properties, such as
high wear resistance, high strength and hardness and
low thermal expansion coefficients.9
Castings made from hypereutectic Al–Si alloys suffer
from several defects such as primary Si particles
segregation and high porosity.10 Such defects degrade
significantly the mechanical properties. The FSP can be
used to eliminate such structural defects and hence
improve the mechanical properties. Accordingly, it is the
aim of the present work to study the influence of FSP on
the mechanical and microstructural characteristics of
A390 hypereutectic Al–Si alloy.
Experimental
The alloy chosen for this work is an industrial cast A390
hypereutectic Al–Si alloy. The chemical composition
of the alloy was Al–16?47Si–4?29Cu–0?62Mg–0?36Fe–
0?149Ni–0?132Mn–0?019Zn–0?017Ti (wt-%). The alloy
was received in the form of ingots and machined into
thick plates having the following dimensions [15 mm
(width)6100 mm (length)66 mm (thickness)].
The FSP experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. A
steel tool, made from H13 alloy steel, with a pin of 5 mm
in diameter and 3 mm in length and shoulder of 13 mm
in diameter, was used to conduct the FSP. Friction stir
processing was conducted using vertical milling machine
at two different tool rotational speeds, typically 1125
and 1800 rev min21, and two different traverse (feed)
speeds of 10 and 20 mm min21. Moreover, the FSP was
conducted from one to two passes. In all experiments,
the friction pressure was held constant by keeping the
tool downforce at 0?5 kN.
Specimens from the FSP plates were cross-sectioned
perpendicular to the processing direction and then
ground, polished and etched using Keller’s etchant

ß 2010 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute
Received 23 March 2009; accepted 5 May 2009
1120 DOI 10.1179/174328409X459310 Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 9

1 Friction stir processing experimental setup
before the examination. The microstructural character-
istics of the FSP plates were investigated using an optical
metallurgical microscope. The sizes of the a-Al primary
grains and primary Si particles were measured using
standard quantitative methods via a metallurgical image
analyser. The size of pores and cavities in the stirred
zone (SZ) were measured using metallurgical image
analyser.
The hardness was measured on the cross-section
perpendicular to the processing direction at the centres
of the SZ using a Vickers indenter with a 1 kg load.
Results and discussion
Macro- and microstructural observations
Typical microstructure of the as cast A390 alloy is
shown in Fig. 2. The microstructure of the alloy consists
mainly of primary a-Al grains (white regions), coarse
Al–Si eutectic structure and large primary Si particu-
lates. It has been found that the primary Si particulate
distribution was not homogeneous in the base material
(BM). The size of the primary Si particulates was found
to be 20¡5 mm. The as cast BM was found to suffer
from porosity and large cavities. The size of the cavities
was found to vary from 10 to about 150 mm.
Figure 3 shows a typical micrograph of the macro-
structure for the cross-sections of the FSP plates. It was
observed that plates FSP at lower tool rotational and
traverse speeds and single pass exhibited cavity defects,
as shown in Fig. 3. Cavities were observed only in the
retreating sides of the FSP regions. The formation of the
2 Microstructure of as cast A390 Al alloy
Mahmoud et al. Effect of FSP on A390 hypereutectic Al–Si alloy
3 Typical macrostructure of cross-sections of FSP plates
processed at 1125 rev min21 and 20 mm min21, one
pass
cavities in the retreating side is attributed to the
insufficient heat input during friction stir welding.11
Increasing the tool rotational speed or reducing the
traverse speed increases the amount of the heat input
and hence reduces the possibility of formation of
cavities. Moreover, it has been found that increasing
the number of passes eliminates the formation of the
cavities.
The microstructures at the centre of SZ for the FSP
regions processed at several tool rotational and traverse
speeds and different number of passes are illustrated in
Figs. 4 and 5. It is clear that the microstructure of the
SZ is very different from that of the BM. The SZ has
much more homogeneous microstructure as compared
to the BM. Both the large primary Si particulates and
the dendrite structure disappeared over the whole SZ.
This is because the material within the SZ experienced
intense stirring and mixing, which resulted in the
breakup of the coarse Si particles and the dendritic
structure and gave a homogeneous distribution of more
fine Si particulates throughout the Al alloy matrix.
Moreover, the large cavities found in the BM completely
disappeared in the SZ. Only uniformly distributed very
fine microporosities having sizes between y0?5 and
y2 mm were found to be present inside the SZ.
Optical microscopy revealed a high density of fine and
nearly equiaxed Si particles uniformly distributed in
most of the SZ. In all cases, the Si particulate
distribution was quite uniform, and no particle rich or
particle free zones were detected.
It is found in the present investigation that the size of
the Si particulates in the SZ is significantly influenced by
tool rotational and traverse speeds as well as the number
of the processing passes. Figure 6 shows the variation of
the average size of Si particles at the centres of the SZ
with the tool rotational and traverse speeds at different
FSP passes. The results revealed that, at a fixed number
of passes, the average size of the Si particles was found
to increase with increasing the tool rotational speed and
decreasing the tool traverse speed. Increasing the tool
rotational speed and/or reducing the traverse speed
raises the heat input during the FSP, which affects the
size of the Si particles. The size of the Si particles should
increase with the increasing heat input.6
It has been found that increasing the number of
processing passes tends to reduce the average size of Si
particulates at the SZ. For instance, for alloy FSP at
1125 rev min21 and 10 mm min21, the average size of Si
Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 9 1121
Mahmoud et al. Effect of FSP on A390 hypereutectic Al–Si alloy

a 10 mm min21, one pass; b 10 mm min21, two passes; c 20 mm min21, one pass; d 20 mm min21, two passes
4 Microstructure of A390 alloy at centre of SZ under different FSP conditions: FSP 1125 rev min21

a 10 mm min21, one pass; b 10 mm min21, two passes; c 20 mm min21, one pass; d 20 mm min21, two passes
5 Microstructure of A390 alloy at centre of SZ under different FSP conditions: FSP 1800 rev min21

1122 Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 9


6 Variation of average Si particulate size with tool rota-
tional speed at several traverse speeds and FSP
passes
particulates at the centre of SZ was reduced from y2?2
to y1?3 mm when increasing the number of passes from
single to double passes.
The results obtained in the present investigation are in
general agreement with many published works,1,7,8,11 in
which the size of Si particulates inside the SZ is reduced
by reducing the tool rotational speed and/or by
increasing tool traverse speed and/or the number of
FSP passes. However, some investigations have reported
different results.6,12 For example, Kim et al.12 found for
A356 Al alloys that the size of the Si particles is not
significantly affected by the tool rotation speed and
decreases with increasing tool traverse speed. In addi-
tion, Ma et al.6 reported for the same Al alloy, i.e. A356,
that the number of passes, up to five passes, did not
exert a significant effect on the size and distribution of
the Si particles. The size and aspect ratio of the Si
particles in various regions are quite similar, indicating
that overlapping FSP did not result in further breakup
of the Si particles. Furthermore, the size and aspect ratio
of the Si particles in various regions for the fifth pass
FSP sample are in good agreement with those achieved
for the single-pass FSP sample. It is believed that these
contrary results are due to the difference in the nature of
the investigated alloys as well as FSP processing para-
meters. In the present work, the A390 alloy contains
y17%Si, while the A356 alloy contains y7%Si. Accord-
ingly, it seems that multiple-pass FSP is feasible to
reduce the size of Si particulates only when performing
microstructural modification on Al–Si alloys containing
large amount of Si.
According to the above results, it is concluded that the
combination of the tool rotational speed, traverse speed
and the number of processing passes is very important
and plays an important role in determining the size of Si
particulates.
The as cast A390 Al alloy exhibited dendritic structure
with a grain size varying between 100 and 1000 mm
(Fig. 2). Friction stir processing resulted in a breakup of
the aluminium dendritic structure as well as the breakup
and redistribution of Si particulates in the aluminium
matrix as shown before. It is important to mention that
the grain boundaries in friction stir processed A390 are
not easily distinguished, and the size of a-Al grains was
extremely difficult to be determined. However, the grain
Mahmoud et al. Effect of FSP on A390 hypereutectic Al–Si alloy
7 Variation of hardness at centre of SZ with tool rota-
tional speed at several traverse speeds and FSP
passes
size in FSP A390 samples was measured roughly to be
on the order of 1–3 mm. It is clear from the above results
that FSP significantly reduced the size a-Al grains;
however, the effect of the tool rotation and traverse
speed as well as the number of passes on the grain size
was difficult to determine.
Hardness test results
The as cast A390 Al alloy exhibited hardness values
from 76 to 105 HV. This wide scatter in harness values is
attributed to the non-uniform distribution of the
primary Si particulates and also the coarse eutectic
structure inside the Al matrix, since it is well known that
the hardness of Al–Si alloys depends on the measured
point of the hardness indenter. In contrast, it has been
observed that, in SZ, the hardness profiles have more
uniform shapes. The uniform hardness values obtained
inside the SZ is attributed to the more fine and
homogeneous distribution of the Si particulates in the
SZ in comparison with the BM. The SZ has hardness
values that vary between 82 and 97 HV, which are
slightly lower than that of the BM.
Figure 7 shows the variation of the hardness at the
centre of the SZ with the tool rotational speed at several
traverse speeds and FSP passes. It is clear from Fig. 7
that the hardness values showed a significant depen-
dence on the FSP parameters. The hardness values were
found to decrease with increasing the tool rotational and
the number of passes, while they were found to increase
by increasing the traverse speed. This can be attributed
to the increase in the grain size exhibited at higher
rotational speeds and lower traverse speeds. The highest
hardness value (,97 HV) was observed for samples
friction stir processed at 1125 rev min21 and
200 mm min21 in a single pass.
During FSP and due to the friction between the steel
tool and Al plate, the temperature of the Al plate rises to
500uC, resulting in a thermal cycle.13 During this
thermal cycle, most of the primary strengthening
precipitates in A390, such as Mg2Si, are dissolved in
the Al matrix. At higher tool rotational speed and/or
lower traverse speeds, the heat generated from FSP
increases. This raises the temperature highly and assists
the precipitates to be dissolved faster. It has been
reported that fast cooling from the FSP thermal cycle
Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 9 1123
Mahmoud et al. Effect of FSP on A390 hypereutectic Al–Si alloy
retains these solutes in solution.6,13 In this case,
precipitation occurred during the room temperature
natural aging after FSP, resulting in an increase in the
strength of the FSP samples. However, when performing
multiple-pass FSP, each subsequent FSP pass causes a
short term high temperature exposure of the previously
processed zones, resulting in overaging of these zones
and tends to reduce the hardness and the strength of the
alloy.
Conclusions
1. The FSP greatly improved the microstructural
properties of A390 Al–Si hypereutectic alloy by elim-
inating structural defects such as porosity and Si
segregation. Moreover, the sizes of both a-Al primary
grains and primary Si particles were significantly
reduced by FSP.
2. The size of Si particulates inside the SZ was found
to be reduced by reducing the tool rotational speed,
increasing tool traverse speed and increasing the number
of FSP passes.
3. The SZ exhibited slightly lower, but less scattered,
hardness values when compared with BM. The hardness
values at the centre of SZ were found to decrease with
increasing the tool rotational and the number of passes,
while it increases by increasing the traverse speed.
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