Materials Science and Engineering A 444 (2007) 69–74

Influence of alloy elements and pouring temperature

on the fluidity of cast magnesium alloy
Qin Hua a,∗ , Deming Gao b , Hongjun Zhang a , Yuhui Zhang a , Qijie Zhai a
a Department of Material Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
b Shanghai Huizhong Automotive Manufacturing Co., Ltd., China

Received 18 March 2006; accepted 11 August 2006

Abstract
The fluidity is one of the most important properties for cast alloy. The quality of castings is influenced by the fluidity of liquid metal, especially
under gravity casting conditions. In this paper, the factors affecting the fluidity of cast magnesium alloy have been studied by vacuum suction
method. The experimental data show that the relationship between the fluidity of magnesium alloy and pouring temperature can be described as an
exponential damping curve. The length of freezing range, which varies with the content of alloy elements, such as Al, Zn, Mn and Ce, influences the
fluidity of magnesium alloy. In Mg–Al–Zn–Mn–Ce alloy system inter-metallic phases precipitated during pouring reduce the fluidity of magnesium
alloy.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Fluidity; Alloy element; Magnesium alloy; Vacuum suction method

1. Introduction 2. Experimental procedure

Magnesium is rich in resource and easy to recycle. Magne-
sium alloy is the lowest in density of all metallic constructional
materials with high specific strength, which possesses great
potential application, especially in automotive industry [1]. Most
research work of magnesium alloy is focused on ignition-proof
[2–4], creep [5–8] and grain refinement [9–12]. Only a few work-
ers have researched on the casting process of magnesium alloy,
mostly on pressure die casting magnesium alloy, such as AZ91
[13,14]. The pouring of metal into the mold is one of the critical
steps in founding, since the fluidity of the liquid and its sub-
sequent solidification and cooling determine whether the cast
shape will be properly formed, internally sound and free from
defects. In order to enhance the application of magnesium alloy,
it is necessary to be familiar with its casting property, espe-
cially fluidity of magnesium alloy. In this paper, the relationship
between the fluidity and pouring temperature of magnesium
alloy as well as alloy compositions have been studied, which
will benefit to gating system design and improve the quality of
magnesium alloy castings.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 5633 1909; fax: +86 21 5633 1909.
E-mail address: huaqin@shu.edu.cn (Q. Hua).
Elements, such as Al, Zn and Mn are cheap and widely used
in common magnesium alloys (e.g. AZ91, AM60 and AS41)
to increase their strength. Ce is an effective grain refining ele-
ment for magnesium alloys [12]. The charges in this experiment
were prepared in graphite crucible using fluxing technique and
molten by an electric resistance furnace. Magnesium, aluminum
and zinc metal ingots of 99.5% purity, cerium ingot of 97%
and Mg–2%Mn master-alloy were used. In order to enhance the
efficiency of research work and aim the practical use, the alloy
compositions were designed on common magnesium alloys and
had a little adjustment according to the orthogonal test method
(see Table 1).
There are two types of fluid test that are widely used for
measuring fluidity of an alloy; the one is the fluidity spiral test
and the other is the vacuum fluidity test [15]. The first one
is the most common method to measure the fluidity of cast
alloy. Since fluidity measurement is sensitive to small change
with thermal properties and surface characteristics of the mold,
the closest approach is achieved by the vacuum fluidity test
[16]. In this experiment, a device based on the vacuum flu-
idity test is designed (see Fig. 1). It processes the virtues of
the vacuum fluidity test and does not need vacuum pump and
pressure controller. The filling pressure can be controlled eas-

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2006.08.060
70 Q. Hua et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 444 (2007) 69–74

Table 1
The testing composition and experimental results

No. of furnace Al% (A) Zn% (B) Mn% (C) Ce% (D) Fluidity length (mm)a Fluidity length (mm)b Liquidus temperature (◦ C)

1# 3(1) 0.4(1) 0.3(1) 0.0(1) 121.9 127.6 634.1

2# 3(1) 0.8(2) 0.6(2) 0.5(2) 120.3 125.8 633.5
3# 3(1) 1.2(3) 0.9(3) 1.0(3) 104.2 108.5 632.6
4# 6(2) 0.4(1) 0.6(2) 1.0(3) 101.7 99.3 620.9
5# 6(2) 0.8(2) 0.9(3) 0.0(1) 114.9 107.5 614.0
6# 6(2) 1.2(3) 0.3(1) 0.5(2) 111.7 103.5 612.2
7# 9(3) 0.4(1) 0.9(3) 0.5(2) 112.8 96.6 599.4
8# 9(3) 0.8(2) 0.3(1) 1.0(3) 107.3 89.1 592.8
9# 9(3) 1.2(3) 0.6(2) 0.0(1) 110.8 116.5 633.3
K11 115.5 112.1 113.6 115.8
K12 109.4 114.2 110.9 114.9
K13 110.3 108.9 110.6 104.4
Range1 6.1 5.3 3.0 11.4
Long/short1 A1/A2 B2/B3 C1/C3 D1/D3
K21 120.6 107.9 106.7 117.2
K22 103.4 107.5 113.9 108.6
K23 100.7 109.5 104.2 99.0
Range2 19.9 2.0 9.7 18.2
Long/short2 A1/A3 B3/B2 C2/C3 D1/D3
a The results were obtained at 725 ◦ C pouring temperature.
b The results were obtained at 100 ◦ C superheat temperature.

ily by the level difference of colored water in the U-type glass
tube.
Before measuring, the rubber ball was pressed and air passed
through one-way valves into U-type glass tube to form a certain
pressure difference (in this experiment 400 mm water column
was used). When the liquid metal in the crucible was melted to
the measuring temperature, the silica glass tube of 4 mm inner-
diameter was dipped into liquid alloy, and then the air valve was
opened and the liquid metal was sucked into the silica tube by
the U-type glass tube pressure difference. With the filled height
increasing, the pressure difference in the U-type was gradually
reduced just as what happened in the pouring process. The sam-
pling temperature was recorded and the lengths of samples were
measured as the fluidity property. After the temperatures of liq-
uid metal in the crucible decreased at every 15 ◦ C, the process
was repeated again and again until the solidification was com-
pleted.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Non-linear fitting regression of experiment data
In order to describe the relationship of fluidity between pour-
ing temperature and compositions more accurately, the non-
linear least-square curve fitting regression was used for deter-
mining the relationship. It was reported [13] that for AZ91
magnesium alloy the filling lengths increases with the increase of
pouring temperatures from 711 to 750 ◦ C and increase slowly
or even decreases with the increasing of pouring temperature
from 750 to 782 ◦ C. The following two functions were chosen
to regress in this experiment:

Y = A + B1(X − X0) + B2(X − X0)2 (1)

Fig. 1. The device for measuring fluidity: (1) silica glass tube, (2) liquid alloy,
(3) U-type glass tube, (4) rubber ball, (5) air-valve and (6) one-way valves.
  
X − X0
Y = Y 0 + A1 exp − (2)
t1
Here, Y is the value of fluidity, X the pouring temperature, X0
a liquidus point and A, B1, B2, Y0, A1 and t1 are coefficients
varied with alloy compositions. They are very much alike in
these two kinds of function regressive curves (see Fig. 2). In
order to determine which function is more accurate to fit the
curve, the coefficients of two functions with different composi-
tions are compared (see Appendix A). The closer the correlation
coefficient (CC) to “1” and the smaller the standard deviation
(S.D.), the regression result is more reliable. Comparing their
CC and S.D., the exponential function is more accurate for fit-
ting the relationship between fluidity and pouring temperatures.
By statistics [17], the CC of exponential regression satisfies the
 Q. Hua et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 444 (2007) 69–74
Fig. 2. Relationship between fluidity and casting temperature of sample 4#.
The black crosses are experiment results; the solid curve is exponential function
regression and the dot curve is secondary function regression.
condition of the significance, so the fluidity of magnesium alloy
and pouring temperatures can be described as an exponential
damping curve. The exponential function regression data of flu-
idity were listed in Table 1.
3.2. The fluidity length influenced by pouring temperature
The fluidity lengths influenced by four factors of alloy groups
(A–D) and three levels of alloy contents (1–3) are listed in
Table 1. “KX1” represents the average fluidity length of level
“1”, “KX2” represents that of level “2” and “KX3” of level
“3” (X = “1” for the same pouring temperature or “2” for the
same superheat temperature). “RangeX” represents the differ-
ence between the highest value and the lowest value in KX1,
KX2 and KX3. “Long/ShortX” represents the longest length of
fluidity versus the shortest length at A, B, C or D.
The pouring temperature is very important to liquid metal
fluidity. When pouring temperature is at 840 ◦ C, the actual flu-
idity length of sample 1# is 175.6 mm and at 642 ◦ C the length
is only 25.4 mm. The microstructure (see Fig. 3b) of 1# sample
poured at 642 ◦ C shows that some solid had formed at that tem-
Fig. 4. The microstructures in different pouring temperatures.
71
Fig. 3. The fluidity curve of exponential function regression in different pouring
temperatures.
perature, which reduced the fluidity of liquid metal. The solid
grows quickly than the rest of liquid forming non-uniform struc-
ture against the microstructure poured at 840 ◦ C (see Fig. 3a).
The fluidity results in bold (see Table 1) show that Ce is the most
sensitive element on the fluidity of magnesium alloy; the others
from sensitive to sluggish are Al, Zn and Mn, so the curves of
fluidity lengths of samples 3#, 4# and 8# which contain more
Ce are in the lower position in Fig. 4. In general, the higher the
element contents, such as Ce and Mn, the shorter the fluidity
lengths. Al at 6–9% and Zn at 0.4–0.8% demonstrate less influ-
ence on the fluidity of magnesium alloy, so samples 1# and 2#
contain less alloy elements and display better flowability (see
Fig. 4).
3.3. The fluidity lengths influenced by superheat
temperatures
It is said [16] that valid comparisons of the fluidities of var-
ious alloys can only be made at constant superheat but under
these conditions a marked relationship emerges between alloy
constitution and fluidity. The fluidity results with various alloy
72 Q. Hua et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 444 (2007) 69–74
Fig. 5. The cooling and cooling rate curves of samples 3# (solid), 7# (dash) and
9# (dot).
compositions at the same superheat are listed in italics (see
Table 1) and the liquidus temperatures were measured by ther-
mal analysis method in this experiment (see Fig. 5).
A surprising result shown in Table 1 is that the liquidus tem-
perature of sample 9# is much higher than those of samples 7#
and 8# contained the same of Al. It can be explained by X-ray
diffraction (Fig. 6) and thermal analysis (Fig. 5) that there are
␣-Mg and Al12 Mg17 in sample 7# and only ␣-Mg in sample
9#. Shi-chang et al. [18] reported that Zn element can increase
Fig. 6. Diagram of X-ray diffraction (, ␣-Mg; , Al12 Mg17 ).
Fig. 7. The fluidity curve of exponential function regression with superheat
temperature.
the solution of Al in ␣-Mg. For this reason, there is more ␣-Mg
solution in sample 9# with higher liquidus temperature and like
sample 1# in good fluidity at the same superheat temperature
(see Table 1). Omitting the experimental results (K2(C) = 113.9
and K3(B) = 109.5) of sample 9#, the fluidity length reduces
with the alloy content increasing at 100 ◦ C overheat tempera-
ture. At 725 ◦ C pouring temperature, the fluidity lengths from
longer to shorter are samples 1#, 2#, 5#, 7#, 6#, 9#, 8#, 3# and 4#,
in Fig. 4. For 100 ◦ C overheat temperature, the fluidity lengths
from longer to shorter are samples 1#, 2#, 9#, 3#, 5#, 6#, 4#,
7# and 8#. It is the reason that the fluidity influence factor from
sensitive to sluggish is Al, Ce, Mn and Zn (see Fig. 7), but Al
content is much higher than Ce content.
3.4. The fluidity influenced by freezing mode
In general, the freezing mode can be defined as two kinds
[19]: the one is for pure metal and eutectics called skin freez-
ing; the other is for alloys with long-freezing range called pasty
freezing. For skin freezing material, the mode of solidification
of the stream appears by planar front from the walls of mold
towards the center, like samples 1# and 9# (see Fig. 7a). For
pasty freezing alloy, the growth of dendrites at an early stage
of freezing leads to an equiaxed structure, like sample 3# (see
Fig. 7b). For skin freezing material the fluidity length is defined
as [19]:
Lf = V × t f
where V is the flow velocity and tf is the flow time. However, for
pasty freezing material, the flow stops in the range of 50–60%
of solid, and the flow time is much shorter than that of the skin
freezing mode. The fluidity length is defined as:
tf
Lf = V ×
2
Compared with the cooling curves (see Fig. 5), the freezing
range of sample 9# is shorter than that of sample 3#, although
sample 9# contains more Al element than sample 3#, and the
 Q. Hua et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 444 (2007) 69–74 73

Fig. 8. Microstructure of samples 1# and 3# cut along the length of samples (The lower is at the surface and the upper is in the center of the samples): (a) sample 1#
(735 ◦ C pouring) and (b) sample 3# (735 ◦ C pouring).

Table 2
Average composition and shape of inter-metallic phases
Average composition Mg (at%) Al (at%) Zn (at%) Mn (at%) Ce (at%) Shape

3#(A) 89 7.5 0.5 1.5 1.5 Lamella

3#(B) 76 15 9 – – Polyhedron
7#(A) 65 29 – 4 2 Lamella
7#(B) 6 54 – 40 – Polyhedron
8#(A) 66 28 – – 6 Lamella
8#(B) 9 61 – 21 9 Polyhedron

fluidity of sample 9# with columnar crystal is better than that of
sample 3# with equiaxed crystal.
3.5. The fluidity influenced by inter-metallic phases
In Mg–Al–Zn–Mn–Ce system except ␣-Mg and Al12 Mg17 ,
many inter-metallic phases may precipitate and their melting
points mostly are above 700 ◦ C [20]. When the inter-metallic
phases appear during pouring, it will reduce the fluidity of
magnesium alloy. In order to observe the morphology of inter-
metallic phases, magnified photomicrographs were carried out
(see Fig. 8). The shape of inter-metallic phases can be divided
into two kinds, lamellar (“A” pointed) and polyhedral struc-
ture (“B” pointed) (Fig. 9). The lamellar and polyhedral inter-
metallic phases in sample 8# are much greater than in those
3# and 7#. The composition of these inter-metallic phases is
analyzed with energy dispersion spectrometer (EDS) and their
results are listed in Table 2. The results are the average values
of three tests separately.
In polyhedral structure, the content of Mg is reduced in
atomic percent and the content of Al is increased, especially
in samples 7# and 8#. In lamellar structure, Ce element is con-
centrated in the inter-metallic phases. For sample 3# (higher
Zn and Ce, lower Al) Zn concentrates; for sample 7# (higher
Al and Mn, lower Zn) Al and Mn concentrate; for sample 8#
(higher Al and Ce, lower Mn) Al and Ce concentrate; these alloy
elements are specially concentrated in polyhedron structure.
In Mg–Al–Zn–Mn–Ce alloy system, the inter-metallic phases
containing Al and Ce with high melting point may precipitate
during pouring, so liquid magnesium alloys with higher content
of Al and Ce show poor fluidity, such as samples 3#, 4#, 7# and
8#.

Fig. 9. The shapes of inter-metallic phases: (a) sample 3#, (b) sample 7# and (c) sample 8#.
74 Q. Hua et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 444 (2007) 69–74

Table A.1 Table A.2

Parameters of secondary function regression Parameters of exponential function regression

No. of furnace A B1 B2 CCa S.D.b No. of furnace Y0 A1 t1 CCa S.D.b

1 26.5891 1.2723 −2.89 × 10−3 0.9499 11.7146 1 181.366 −164.317 89.474 0.9607 10.387
2 26.5176 1.2354 −2.65 × 10−3 0.9716 9.5228 2 192.279 −171.020 105.757 0.9784 8.293
3 30.5247 0.9692 −1.91 × 10−3 0.9797 6.8374 3 187.100 −157.385 144.039 0.9824 6.379
4 21.2077 0.9449 −1.65 × 10−3 0.9948 3.5263 4 203.316 −182.721 177.353 0.9956 3.247
5 21.7465 1.0064 −1.50 × 10−3 0.9809 7.1763 5 258.794 −238.254 220.239 0.9809 7.168
6 24.5249 0.8987 −1.12 × 10−3 0.9601 10.7575 6 285.850 −262.162 275.587 0.9605 10.707
7 19.0965 0.8727 −1.01 × 10−3 0.9813 7.5213 7 296.602 −278.205 302.865 0.9814 7.498
8 21.6434 0.7404 −7.31 × 10−4 0.9715 8.3163 8 285.175 −265.178 331.028 0.9723 8.187
9 37.1105 0.9100 −1.30 × 10−3 0.9510 9.4605 9 235.737 −203.494 187.170 0.9539 9.187
Average 0.9712 8.3148 Average 0.9740 7.895
a CC: Correlation coefficient. a CC: Correlation coefficient.
b S.D.: Standard deviation. b S.D.: Standard deviation.

4. Conclusions go to the staff of Solidification Research Group, Shanghai Uni-

In this experiment, the influence on the fluidity of
Mg–Al–Zn–Mn–Ce alloy system has been studied and conclu-
sions drawn as follow:
(1) The relationship between the fluidity of magnesium alloy
and pouring temperature can be described as exponential
damping curve.
(2) With the increase of alloy elements, the fluidity decreases
and the sensitivity order from strong to weak is Ce, Al, Zn
and Mn.
(3) With the increase of alloy elements, the liquidus temperature
of magnesium alloy decreases, which benefit the fluidity, but
excepted sample 9#.
(4) The length of freezing range influences the freezing mode,
which affects the fluidity of magnesium alloy.
(5) In Mg–Al–Zn–Mn–Ce alloy system, the inter-metallic
phases concentrated with Al and Ce elements have been
found, which precipitate during pouring and reduce the flu-
idity of magnesium alloy.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Shang-
hai Huizhong Automotive Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Thanks also
versity for their help on the experiment work.
Appendix A
Tables A.1 and A.2.
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