Effect of Porosity on the High-Cycle Fatigue Behavior of Al-Si-Mg Casting Alloy

Al-Si-Mg계 주조용 알루미늄 합금의 고주기 피로 거동에 미치는 기공의 영향

The effect of porosity on the high-cycle fatigue properties of Al-Si-Mg casting aluminum alloys was investigated in this study. Microstructure examination, tensile and high-cycle fatigue test were conducted on both Al-Si-Mg casted (F) and heat-treated (T6) conditions. Porosity characteristics on the fracture surfaces of fatigue-tested samples were examined using SEM and image analysis. The microstructure observation results showed that eutectic Si particles were homogeneously dispersed in the matrix of the Al-Si-Mg casting alloys, but there were porosities formed as cast defects. The high-cycle fatigue results indicated that the fatigue strength of the 356-T6 alloy was higher than that of the 356-F alloys because of the significant reduction in volume fraction of pores by heat treatment. The SEM fractography results showed that porosity affected detrimental effect on the fatigue life: 80% of all tested samples fractured as a result of porosity which acted as the main crack initiation site. It was found that fatigue life decreased as the size of the surface pore increased. A comparison was made between surface pore and inner pore fur its effect on the fatigue behavior. The results showed that the fatigue strength with the inner pores was higher than that of the surface pore.