Effect of Rare Earth Upon As-Cast Microstructure and High Temperature Performance of ZA40 Alloy

In testing comparison, this study is made on the modification effect of 0.05 wt.% La-rich rare earth (RE) upon as-cast microstructure, mechanical properties of materials at high temperatures (100, 150, 200°C) and wear resistance under different temperatures (100and 200°C) of ZA40 alloy containing Si. The addition of RE shows that it can not only effectively refine Al-rich and Cu-rich phase, but also reduce the amount of needle-like eutectic silicon, and then make the size of massive primary silicon phase smaller. Thus, there are the improvement of strength, ductility and wear resistance of materials at high temperature. The analyses are also conducted on the mechanism of underlying RE elements.