ARTICLES

Effects of heat treatments on microstructure and properties of

nickel–aluminum bronze fabricated by centrifugal casting
Gaoyong Lina)
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China;
and Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Materials Science and Engineering, Ministry of Education,
Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Hongyang Wang, Yuyong Wei, Zongpeng Zhang, and Ke Zhou
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

(Received 12 June 2016; accepted 18 November 2016)

A kind of nickel–aluminum bronze (Cu–10Al–4Fe–4Ni) prepared by centrifugal casting (CC) and

gravity casting (GC), respectively, were investigated. The results indicate that CC alloy, which is
totally different from GC alloy, consists of a, jI, jII, jIII, jIV, and b9 phases and the
microstructures of CC alloy shows nonuniformities from external to internal layer mainly because
the distribution of iron and nickel are influenced by centrifugal force. Besides, it is noted that
comprehensive mechanical properties of CC alloy are superior to those of GC alloy. Additionally,
heat treatments were performed on CC alloy. The results demonstrate the optimal heat treatment
is aging at 450 °C/1 h by air cooling after solution treated at 890 °C/1 h by water quench. The
ultimate tensile strength and hardness are increased by about 10% and 56%, respectively, and
wear resistance is also greatly improved. However, the elongation is decreased by 53%.

I. INTRODUCTION working on microstructure evolution of as-cast NAB

Nickel–aluminum bronze known as NAB alloy con-
tains 9–12% (wt pct) aluminum with additions of less
than 6% (wt pct) of Ni and Fe. Currently NAB has been
extensively used where high strength, excellent wear, and
corrosion resistance are required.1–4 However, it is
difficult for NAB to be fabricated by traditional gravity
casting (GC) process because of the narrow range of
solidification, the complex nature caused by additions
of high-melting elements (such as Fe and Ni) and the
casting difficulties associated with the formation of
alumina in the melt.5 In addition, mechanical properties
of traditional as-cast NAB alloy are always difficult to
meet growing requirements. Many researchers have
mainly studied the phase transformation, hot working,
heat treatment, and corrosion behavior of NAB alloy.
Suresh and Rammurty6 carried out an extensive in-
vestigation on the solidification structure as well as the
effects of heat treatment and mold types on micro-
structure of NAB (Cu–9Al–4Ni–4Fe) alloy produced
in a sand mold and a die mold, respectively. The results
showed that the structure became considerably homog-
enous. Besides, the hardness and tensile strength were
increased significantly after heat treatment. What’s more,
J. Anantapong et al.7 investigated the effects of hot
Contributing Editor: Jürgen Eckert
a)
Address all correspondence to this author.
e-mail: mater218@163.com
DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2016.455
alloy. And then they put forward that higher cooling rate
significantly led to the increase of the b9 phase and finer
Widmanstatten structure in the resulting microstructures,
which improved hardness of NAB. According to these
literature studies, many aspects have been focused on
NAB except changing casting methods so as to minimize
the difficulties of fabrication and improve microstructure
distribution and mechanical properties.
Special casting process combined with appropriate
heat treatment can perfect comprehensive performances
of as-cast alloy in a large extent.8–11 Centrifugal casting
(CC) is a kind of special casting process which has with
many advantages. Alloys fabricated by CC can obtain
higher tensile strength, hardness, and better wear resistance
compared with GC alloys.12–16 Owing to dramatically
centrifugal force, the blisters, dross, and oxidate slag that
are lighter than the melt will be forced to the innermost
surface, which can be eliminated by the following
machining. Therefore, CC definitely plays an important
role in the reduction of shrinkage porosity and the density
of as-cast alloys can be significantly improved. G. Chirita
et al.12 revealed that centrifugal force affected phase
distribution and morphologies and improved mechanical
properties of the whole casting, especially the outer layer
where the centrifugal force was the highest. Nowadays,
CC has been widely used to fabricate alloys (zinc alloys
and aluminum alloys).
In the present work, microstructure and mechanical
properties of a kind of NAB (Cu–10Al–4Fe–4Ni) fabri-
cated by CC were investigated. For comparison, this kind

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 G. Lin et al.: Effects of heat treatments on microstructure and properties of nickel–aluminum bronze fabricated by centrifugal casting
of NAB manufactured by GC was also under consider-
ation. What’s more, different heat treatments of CC alloy
were carried out and the optimal heat treatment process
was confirmed.
II. EXPERIMENTAL
A. Materials
NAB with a nominal composition of Cu–10Al–4Fe–4Ni
was studied, which was fabricated by CC process at a
rotational speed of 600 rpm and GC process, respectively.
The ingot was 100 mm high with the inner diameter of
200 mm and the outer diameter of 300 mm.
To study the effects of different heat treatments on
mechanical properties of CC alloys, heat treatments were
performed at various temperatures for 1 h. The solution
treated specimens were quenched into water from 830 °C
to 950 °C at a constant interval of 30 °C, respectively,
after which microstructure was studied and mechanical
properties were examined to determine the optimal solu-
tion temperature. On this basis, the specimens under the
optimal solution temperature were aged at 450 °C,
490 °C, 530 °C, 570 °C, 610 °C, respectively. And then
air cooling to room temperature was done.
B. Characterization
Microstructure was characterized by optical micro-
scope (POLYVAR-MET, Photonic Microdevices Inc.,
Murray Hill, New Jersey), Tecnai G2 F20 transmission
electron microscope (TEM; FEI Corporation, Eindhoven,
The Netherlands) and Sirion 200 field emission scanning
electron microscope (SEM; FEI Corporation) equipped
with an energy spectrum analysis (EDS) for element
analysis.
Tensile tests were performed on MTS 810 (MTS
Systems Corp., Eden Prairie, Minnesota) at a speed of
1  10 3 s 1. Macrohardness tests were conducted on
a Brinell hardness tester (HB-3000B, Shandong Hualai
Testing Equipment Co. Ltd., Shandong, China), while the
microhardness tests were examined by a Vickers hardness
tester (HVS-1000, Shanghai Lianer Testing Equipment
Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China) at a load of 0.98 N with a
holding time of 10 s. To evaluate the wear behavior,
reciprocating wear tests were performed using a
tribometer system (UMT-3, Bruker Corporation,
Billerica, Massachusetts) under a load of 100 N at a
speed of 240 rpm for 1 h.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Effects of CC on Cu–10Al–4Fe–4Ni
Microhardness tests were performed at several random
positions of Cu–10Al–4Fe–4Ni from external to internal
layers and the results are briefly described as curves
shown in Fig. 1. Obviously, hardness of CC alloy
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FIG. 1. Hardness of CC alloy and GC alloy from external to internal
layer.
indicates a declining tendency with oscillations from
outer layer to innermost layer while those of GC alloy
are basically consistent. It is noted that the highest peak
hardness (227.1 HV) is obtained in CC alloy compared to
GC alloy (194.3 HV). Additionally, hardness of CC alloy
from external surface to internal surface firstly increases
to the peak value (227.1 HV) due to vast majority of
hard b9 phase or various j precipitates and then sharply
decreases corresponding to lots of soft a phase. What’s
more, the internal layer has a relatively low hardness
value (186.5 HV). In the external layer, various j pre-
cipitates are dominant because more iron and nickel are
conducive to precipitation of jIV phase caused by cen-
trifugal force. However, there are many hard b9 phases in
the internal layer although j precipitates are almost
disappeared. The inhomogeneous distribution of hard
b9, various j, and soft a phase interact with each other
and consequently contribute to the large-scale fluctuation
existed in the hardness curve of CC alloy.
The microstructures of the different regions (centrifugal
radius rA 5 140 mm, rB 5 130 mm, and rC 5 120 mm)
in CC alloy are shown in Fig. 2(a). For comparison,
those of GC ingot are also presented [Fig. 2(b)]. It can
be seen that the microstructure morphologies of three
regions in CC alloy are significantly different mainly
caused by dramatically centrifugal force and heat transfer
during solidification. In the external layer (region A), light
phase and the gray phase are almost equivalent in size and
shape, and a number of small rosette-shaped or spherical
black particles dispersedly distribute among the whole
area, which makes contribution to higher peak hardness
(227.1 HV). In terms of region B and region C, the light
phase tends to be large columnar and dendritic-shaped
because of rotational molding. Additionally, black par-
ticles are almost invisible. However, it is noted that GC
alloy consists of light phase, gray phase and a smaller
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 G. Lin et al.: Effects of heat treatments on microstructure and properties of nickel–aluminum bronze fabricated by centrifugal casting

number of rosette-shaped or spherical black particles,
which are evenly distributed. By comparing the micro-
structures of different positions, it can be confirmed that
the microstructures of CC alloy shows nonuniformity
owing to dramatically centrifugal force, heat transfer
during solidification, complex fluid dynamics, and free
surface flows.
When the melt is poured into the mold, its rotational
speed is far less than the mold and the turbulence occurs
because of drastic relative motion. Accordingly, arms of
the primary dendritic columnar grains detach increasingly
which can provide sites for nucleation of a phase in the
external layer. As rotational speed of the melt increases,
laminal flow originally arises from the external layer
and expands to the internal layer gradually. This pro-
cess promotes the growth of large columnar or dendritic-
shaped grains. With the development of this process,
turbulence and laminal flow appear alternately in the
crystalline regions, resulting in inhomogeneous micro-
structures in the different layers. Moreover, as analyzed
before, the content of iron in CC alloy is much higher.
Therefore, more Fe-rich precipitates which appear at the
early stages of solidification are likely to act as new nuclei.
And precipitates can hinder the growth of a phase,
eventually leading to a refinement of the microstructure.17
The microstructures in Fig. 2 are demonstrated at a
higher magnification in the SEM micrographs (Fig. 3),
where the structures, morphologies, and distribution
of phases can be clearly identified. As shown in
Figs. 3(a) and 3(b), CC alloy mainly consists of a phase,
several j phases, and b9 phase. Besides, c2 phase has not
been found possibly because CC alloy has a higher
content of iron so a large amount of aluminum is used
to form Fe-rich j phases. All phases presented in the alloy
are identified according to the morphologies, distribution
and EDS results (Table I). It can be confirmed that the

FIG. 2. Microstructures of as-cast alloy, (a) CC alloy from external to internal layer, (b) GC alloy.

FIG. 3. SEM micrographs of as-cast alloys, (a and b) CC alloy and (c and d) GC alloy.

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 G. Lin et al.: Effects of heat treatments on microstructure and properties of nickel–aluminum bronze fabricated by centrifugal casting

large dendritic-shaped or spherical particles in a grains are Differences of microstructures are substantially related
jI precipitates. And the smaller, dendritic-shaped particles to dramatically centrifugal force and the heat transfer
dispersed in the periphery of a grains are jII precipitates. during solidification. In regard to CC process, the ingot
Besides, the lamellar or globular eutectoid decomposition solidifies from external to internal layer sequentially
products originating from grain boundaries of a phase and and should not be removed from the mold until its
growing into b phase are referred to as jIII precipitates. temperature is low enough to prevent the distortion.
Owing to the slow cooling rate, most of lamellar jIII Additionally, heat transfer of CC process mainly
phases turn into globular shape. As regards GC alloy consists of heat dissipation through the mold and slight
[Figs. 3(c) and (d)], jI phase is invisible because of less convection between the internal melt and ambient air in
content of iron and morphologies and distribution of other that the internal surface is formed by centrifugal force.
j phases are essentially similar to CC alloy. In terms of On the contrary, GC alloy is formed by core instead of
a phase, GC alloy has the Widmanstätten morphology centrifugal force. On the one hand, the core is capable of
different from small equiaxed grains in CC alloy. More- absorbing a certain amount of heat from the melt. On the
over, c2 phase and b9 phase can be seen in the in- other hand, it should be removed when the solidification
tergranular regions. is finished to avoid the corn being held tightly, which
Figure 4 shows TEM micrographs of as-cast CC alloy. results in the enhancement of heat dissipation area
Obviously, jIII phases distribute not only in the areas of and cooling intensity. Therefore, the cooling rate during
b phase but also in a grains [Fig. 4(a)]. And the small solidification of GC process is higher compared with
precipitates throughout a grains are definitively jIV phase that of CC process, leading to the differences of micro-
which is explicitly exhibited in Fig. 4(b). In addition, structures. What’s more, turbulence and vibration of CC
b9 phase is needle-shaped martensite consisted with the apparatus can promote the detachment of arms on the
previous works.17 primary dendritic columnar crystals, conducing to the
formation of finer equiaxed a grains.15
TABLE I. EDS of different phases observed in CC alloy and GC
alloy (wt%). B. Mechanical properties of as-cast alloys
Phase Alloy Cu Al Fe Ni Si Mechanical properties of two as-cast alloys are listed in
GC 85.12 8.79 3.08 3.01 ... Table II. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and hardness
Α(Cu)
CC 84.63 8.78 3.01 3.58 ... of CC alloy are 602 MPa and 136 HBS, respectively,
GC ... ... ... ... ... which are superior to 577 MPa and 130 HBS of GC alloy.
jI(FeAl3)
CC 10.85 10.49 71.50 4.35 2.81 However, the elongation of CC alloy is 17.7%, slightly
GC 12.79 18.71 59.96 4.27 4.27
jII(Al-Fe) lower than 19% (GC alloy). By comparison, CC process
CC 19.74 14.53 52.05 11.8 1.88
GC 52.98 16.90 15.06 15.06 ... can improve UTS and hardness at a cost of elongation.
a 1 jIII(Al–Ni)
CC 57.40 14.97 9.12 18.50 ... The discrepancies of comprehensive mechanical prop-
GC 58.80 22.72 11.61 5.72 1.15 erties have a close relationship with microstructure
c2(Cu9Al4)
CC ... ... ... ... ... morphologies of as-cast alloy. As mentioned before,
GC 72.38 13.53 6.38 7.72 ...
b9(Cu3Al)
CC 69.08 15.25 5.88 9.79 ...
soft a phase in CC alloy is finer.18 And c2 phase presented
in GC alloy has a deleterious effect on mechanical

FIG. 4. TEM micrographs of as-cast CC alloy, (a) jIV phase, (b) jIII phase in a grains, and (c) the morphology of b9 phase.

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 G. Lin et al.: Effects of heat treatments on microstructure and properties of nickel–aluminum bronze fabricated by centrifugal casting
properties. All these factors combined with devoid of
jI phases lead to significant reduction of mechanical
properties for GC alloy.
Obviously, it is noted that the microhardness of
a phase in GC alloy is 208 HV while it is reduced to
193 HV in CC alloy. It is mainly due to the solution
strengthening. According to EDS results in Table I,
solution of a substantial fraction of iron and nickel is
observed in a phase during the rapid cooling. However,
the microhardness of other phases in GC alloy are much
lower, especially b9 phase. This may result from different
quantities and morphologies of precipitates in b9 phase
influenced by casting conditions.
C. Effects of quenching temperatures on
microstructure and properties
Hardness and volume fraction of a phase in CC
samples quenched at various temperatures are plotted in
Fig. 5. Obviously, hardness of CC alloy shows a tendency
to increase significantly below 890 °C while disparity of
hardness becomes inconspicuous when temperature
exceeds 890 °C. This phenomenon can be explained by
the development of microstructure as the quenching
temperature increases.
Figure 6 shows microstructure of as-cast CC alloy
quenched at various temperatures. In Fig. 6(b), it can
be seen that vast majority of eutectoid decomposition
products, i.e., a 1 jIII have been absorbed by a matrix
TABLE II. Mechanical properties of as-cast alloys fabricated by GC
and CC process, respectively.
Microhardness (HV)
Casting rb/rs Elongation Macrohardness
process (MPa) (%) (HBS) a b9
GC 577/436 19 130 208 265
CC 602/442 17.7 136 193 347
FIG. 5. Hardness and volume fraction of a phase at various quenching
temperatures in CC alloy.
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while the other phases are seldom changed. As the
temperature continues to rise, a phase gradually dissolves
into b phase corresponding to the downswing of volume
fraction of a phase as plotted in Fig. 5. And at the same
time, the increasing hard b9 phase leads to significant
elevation of the hardness. At 890 °C, it is noted that
overwhelming majority of various j phases have been
eliminated, counteracting the elevation of the hardness
caused by the increasing hard b9 phase (218 HBS).
In addition, when the temperature exceeds 890 °C, the
morphology of b phase seems to be apparent and the grain
boundaries can be seen definitely in the alloy quenched
at 950 °C.
With the increase of temperature, the volume fraction
of b9 phase manifests a tendency to increase progressively,
resulting in significant improvement of the hardness.
However, excessive content of b9 phase has a deleterious
effect on toughness because b9 phase is needle-shaped
martensite. Furthermore, quenching stress has a close
relationship with quenching temperature and exorbitant
quenching temperature will promote the occurrence of
quenching cracks. Consequently, the optimal quenching
temperature of CC alloy is determined as 890 °C. On the
one hand, the hardness cannot meet the demand when
the temperature is below 890 °C. On the other hand,
quenching stress increases significantly as the tempera-
ture exceeds 890 °C.
D. Effects of aging temperature on microstructure
and properties
Figure 7 illustrates the hardness and volume fraction
of a phase in CC alloy at various aging temperatures
based on the optimal quenching temperature. It can be
a 1 jIII jI
seen that the variation of hardness seems to be complicated.
205 ... And the peak hardness is 212 HBS appearing at 450 °C,
230 320 which is slightly lower than those of the as-quenched
alloy. This is mainly because the volume fraction of soft
a phase increases after aging process. According to
Figs. 5 and 7, the volume fraction of a phase is 42%
for as-quenched alloy (890 °C) whiles the aging alloy
increases to 52%. Nevertheless, the quenching stress
can be substantially eliminated during aging treatment,
ameliorating the fatigue, and corrosion resistance.
Microstructures of the age treated CC alloy are
exhibited in Fig. 8. As analyzed before, microstructure
of as-quenched CC alloy mainly consisted of a phase,
acicular martensitic b9 phase and a few j phases.
For the alloy aged at 450 °C, morphology of martensitic
b9 phase turns into lath-shaped which is further exhibited
in the TEM micrograph perspicuously [Fig. 9(a)]. As the
temperature increases, eutectoid transformation of mar-
tensite initiates and its morphology becomes increasingly
obscure. In addition, decomposition of b9 phase contrib-
utes to the dramatic decrease of the hardness. At 530 °C,
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 G. Lin et al.: Effects of heat treatments on microstructure and properties of nickel–aluminum bronze fabricated by centrifugal casting

FIG. 6. Microstructure of as-cast CC alloy quenched at various temperatures, (a) as-cast alloy, (b) 830 °C, (c) 860 °C, (d) 890 °C, (e) 920 °C, and
(f) 950 °C.

in Fig. 9(b). When the temperature reaches 610 °C, the

eutectoid transformation has been accomplished and the
martensite is almost eliminated. What’s more, minor
coarsen a phase appears in Fig. 8(e) combined with
a phase in the increasing eutectional composition pro-
ducts, arising the anomaly increase of volume fraction
of a phase (Fig. 7). Therefore, the optimal aging tem-
perature is 450 °C according to the development of
microstructure and hardness.

E. Mechanical properties of CC alloys

FIG. 7. Hardness and volume fraction of a phase at various aging
temperature in CC alloy.
numerous j phases precipitate predominantly in a grains,
deterring the downswing of the hardness. Obviously, most
of martensite has been decomposed at 570 °C and the
laminar eutectional composition products are presented
Comparisons of mechanical properties and wear
resistance between as-cast CC alloy and heat-treated
CC alloy are listed in Table III. After optimal heat
treatment (890 °C/1 h 1 450 °C/1 h), the UTS and
hardness of CC alloy are 663 MPa and 212 HBS,
respectively, which is superior to as-cast alloy (602 MPa
and 136 HBS). Compared to as-cast CC alloy, the friction
coefficient of heat-treated CC alloy greatly reduces to 0.38.
It is obvious that this heat treatment can improve the UTS

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 G. Lin et al.: Effects of heat treatments on microstructure and properties of nickel–aluminum bronze fabricated by centrifugal casting

FIG. 8. Microstructure of CC alloy aged at various temperatures, (a) 450 °C, (b) 490 °C, (c) 530 °C, (d) 570 °C, and (e) 610 °C.

FIG. 9. TEM micrographs of aging treated CC alloy, (a) the morphology of lath martensite and (b) laminar eutectoid decomposition products.

and hardness as well as wear resistance significantly at
a cost of elongation.
By means of heat treatment, microstructure morpholo-
gies, distribution as well as volume fraction of soft and hard
phases are improved, increasing the hardness and UTS.
Similarly, the deformation resistance is also enhanced
so plastic deformation reduces relatively during wear
tests. Consequently, the elevated mechanical properties
and deformation resistance can mitigate not only abrasive
wear by preventing the wear debris being pushed into

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 G. Lin et al.: Effects of heat treatments on microstructure and properties of nickel–aluminum bronze fabricated by centrifugal casting
TABLE III. Mechanical properties and wear resistance of as-cast CC alloy and heat-treated CC alloy.
Alloys Hardness (HBS)
as-cast 136
890 °C/1 h 1 450 °C/1 h 212
FIG. 10. SEM micrographs of the worn surface, (a) as-cast CC alloy and (b) heat-treated CC alloy.
the matrix but also adhesive wear of friction pairs, which
contributes to the reduction of friction coefficient. Fur-
thermore, the initiation and propagation of cracks are
inhibited to some extent, meliorating the wear resistance
of the alloy.
The SEM micrographs of the worn surface are pre-
sented in Fig. 10. As regards as-cast alloy, large pits and
shallow furrows can be seen on the worn surface while
the wear debris is not obvious [Fig. 10(a)]. The large pits
mainly result from serious adhesive wear. According to
the morphologies of the worn surface, the wear mecha-
nisms of as-cast alloy consist of adhesive wear and slight
abrasive wear as well as fatigue wear. Compared with
as-cast alloy, significant furrows and wear debris appears
in heat-treated CC alloy instead of large pits as shown in
Fig. 10(b). Therefore, the wear mechanisms of heat-treated
alloy include abrasive wear, fatigue wear, and slight
adhesive wear.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this work, microstructure and mechanical properties
of Cu–10Al–4Fe–4Ni prepared by CC and GC process
were investigated. The development of microstructure
and properties of CC alloy heat-treated at various temper-
atures were also evaluated. The conclusions can be
summarized as follows.
(1) Microstructure of CC alloy mainly consists of a, jI,
jII, jIII, jIV, and b9 phase, while GC alloy comprises a,
jII, jIII, jIV, c2, and b9 phase. Morphologies of a phase
in two alloys are quite different. GC alloy has the
Widmanstätten morphology while CC alloy tends to
be finer equiaxed grains.
(2) Microstructure of CC alloy reveals nonuniformity
from external to internal layer. And Fe-rich precipitates
are prone to aggregate in the external layer caused by
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rb/rs (MPa) Elongation (%) Friction coefficient Wear rate [10 9/(N m)]
602/442 17.7 0.46 5.1
663/538 8.4 0.38 3.6
centrifugal force. Consequently, the hardness of CC
alloy also appears an inhomogeneity and decreases from
external to internal layer.
(3) By comparison, comprehensive mechanical prop-
erties of CC alloy are superior to those of GC alloy.
(4) According to the development of microstructure
and mechanical properties, it can be conformed that the
optimal heat treatment process is aging at 450 °C for 1 h
by air cooling after solution treated at 890 °C for 1 h by
water quench for CC alloy. Under this condition, the UTS
increases by about 10% and hardness by about 56% than
as-cast CC alloy, while the elongation decreases by 53%.
Besides, wear resistance is also improved significantly.
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