IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308 _______________________________________________________________________________________ Volume: 05 Special Issue: 21 | ICRIET-2016 | Nov-2016, Available @ https://www.esatjournals.org/ijret 53 STUDY ON INFLUENCE OF CRYOGENIC TREATMENT ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF AlSi10Mg ALLOY Ramesh S. Desai 1 , Ajith G. Joshi 2 , Sunil Kumar B.V 3 1 Mechanical Engineering Department, Canara Engineering College, Mangalore, VTU, Karnataka, India 2 Mechanical Engineering Department, Canara Engineering College, Mangalore, VTU, Karnataka, India 3 Mechanical Engineering Department, Canara Engineering College, Mangalore, VTU, Karnataka, India Abstract Alloys composed mostly of aluminium have been very important in aerospace manufacturing since the introduction of metal skinned aircraft. Aluminium-magnesium alloys are both lighter than other aluminium alloys and much less flammable than alloys that contain a very high percentage of magnesium. Hence, nowadays Al-Mg alloys are being utilized in many engineering applications. In the current study, an attempt was made to investigate the influence of cryogenic treatment on mechanical properties such as tensile strength, compressive strength, toughness & hardness of AlSi10Mg alloy. It was found that there was increase in tensile properties and rest of the properties increased drastically. There was also ductile to brittle transition in between 12 hour to 24 hour cryogenic treatment. It was also found that the transition was mainly due to the precipitation of second phase particles. Keywords: Al alloys, Al-Mg alloys, Cryogenic Treatment, Mechanical Properties. --------------------------------------------------------------------***------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. INTRODUCTION Cryogenics [2] is the science of production and effects of very low temperatures. Generally, the temperature referred is below 120 K (-153°C). The cryogenic treatment system developed by Ed Busch in the late 1960s and later improved by Peter Paulin with a temperature feedback control on cooling and heating rates allows to perform effective and crackles. CT until very low temperatures subsequently, the research about CT has been validated during the 1980s by the first request in machine tools [6, 7]. Since World War II era it is utilized on steel and other metals to improve the strength and wear resistance of the material. It is known that almost all steels at 193 K transform the austenite into martensite. The use of cold treatment has been initially developed on martensitic tool steels in order to remove retained austenite with benefits on hardness [12]. Aluminium alloys are alloys in which aluminium (Al) is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon and zinc. Alloys composed mostly of aluminium have been very important in aerospace manufacturing since the introduction of metal skinned aircraft. Aluminium-magnesium alloys are both lighter than other aluminium alloys and much less flammable than alloys that contain a very high percentage of magnesium. Junwei et al. [22] has concluded that cryogenic treatment has induced the precipitation of second phase particles, which is one of the important factor influenced on the strengthening of AZ91 Mg Alloy during deformation process. Wang [23] depicts that when deep cryogenic treatment was performed on Mg-alloy its tensile strength and elongation increased by 4.4% and 5.1%. Chen and Li [24] have investigated the effect of cryogenic treatment on the microstructure and properties of Al alloys at -193 deg celsius for 24 hr has revealed the improvement of strength at room temperature and the reduction of the ductility. Zhirafar [25] has studied the effect of cryogenic treatment on mechanical properties on Al alloy by the impact and hardness experiments has concluded that the hardness of the cryogenically treated Al alloy were a little higher than those performed by the experiments at room temperature. Based on the above literature review, it can be infer that there is a scope to study the effect of cryogenic treatment on non- ferrous alloy characteristics. Hence, an attempt was made to study the influence of cryogenic treatment on mechanical properties of AlMg10Si alloy. 2. MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTATION 2.1 Material AlSi10Mg is a non ferrous aluminium alloy, it consist of 90% of aluminium and 10% of silicon. The composition of alloy used in the current study is indicated in Table 1. It has good machinability, castability characteristics combination. It also exhibits better corrosion resistance even against sea water. Table-1: Composition of AlSi10Mg alloy Component Elements Metric(%) by weight Aluminium 85.8-90.6 Copper <=0.60 Iron <=1.3 Magnesium 0.40-0.60 Manganese <=0.35 Nickel <=0.50 Silicon 9-10 Tin <=0.15 Zinc <=0.50 Others <=0.25