International Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Development Issue 7, Vol.

1 (January 2017)
Available online on http://www.rspublication.com/ijeted/ijeted_index.htm ISSN 2249-6149

Comparison of stir casted Mg alloy with and without

addition of lanthanum
Kulwinder Singh1, Rutash Mittal2
1
Research scholar, MED, MIMIT Malout, India,
2
Assitant professor, MED, MIMIT Malout, India,

Abstract
Magnesium alloy are use in automotive and automobile industries due to their low density as
compare to other metal and superior mechanical properties, better corrosion resistance and wear
rate. Magnesium uncomplicated casted alloy based on Mg-20Al-5Zn-1La was casted with stir
casting technique. Aluminium content was restricted to a comparatively low level for improving
the corrosion rate , zinc was added for improve hardness and ductility and lanthanum was added
to compensate for reduced casting capability with increase elongation increased by 21.1%. The
sparkling mechanical properties of these material and moderately low production cost make them
a very attractive variety of application both from scientific and technological point of view. The
aim involved in cast alloy is to combine the desirable attributes of Mg-20Al-5Zn and adding 1%
rare earth element (REM) Lanthanum. The microstructure and mechanical properties are
investigated on the developed alloys. Microstructures are investigated by optical microscopy and
phase of alloy can be identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning electron microscope
(SEM) technique. Hardness tester is employed evaluate the interfacial bonding between the
magnesium and lanthanum by indenting the hardness with the constant load and constant time.
The addition of lanthanum is reported increase tensile strength and hardness to formation of the
reticular Al3La and Mg17Al12 phase.
Key words: Mg-Al-Zn alloy, rare earth lanthanum, mechanical properties and microstructure.

Corresponding Author: Kulwinder Singh Research Scholar Mimit, Malout, Punjab

Introduction
In engineering design materials and technology that reflect human capability and understanding.
Magnesium are used for the many applications like automobile sector, aerospace, daily using
utilities, agricultural equipment, and for other infrastructure. The recognition of the potential
weight savings that can be achieved by using the advanced material like rare earth metal is
responsible for this growth in the technology of rare earth metal and fabrication of alloy [1-3].
The application of lanthanum on pure metal almost limited to the scientific research. In spite of
this, the metallurgical manufacturing is the only marketable field where the metal finds
application. In general, the addition of a small amount of lanthanum to steel, improve its

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International Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Development Issue 7, Vol. 1 (January 2017)
Available online on http://www.rspublication.com/ijeted/ijeted_index.htm ISSN 2249-6149
malleability, resistance to the impact and ductility. The addition of 1% of lanthanum may
increases the hardness of, tensile strength and wear rate [4-5].

The work on Mg based alloy (Mg-20Al-5Zn) and (Mg-20Al-5Zn-1La) develops by stir casting.
The characterization of the material was examine with different mode of testing technique like
mechanical properties, chemical analysis and microstructure of develop alloy. The material was
used to develop the alloy (Mg-20Al-5Zn-1La) having major advantages light weight and good
thermal resistance due to the (rare earth element) lanthanum. The application of the developed
alloy is mainly in automobile engine block, transmission system and gear housing parts. The
target is to improve tensile strength and micro hardness due to Mg17Al12 and Al11La3 phase [6].
The phases and structure can be identified by XRD and SEM.

Material and method

The Mg alloy having aluminium content for improve corrosion rate. Aluminium has high
strength to weight ratio, easy machinability and ductile. Aluminium is ductile and has a low
melting point and density. In a melt state it can be processed in a number of ways [7-9]. Its
ductility allows products of aluminium to be basically formed close to the end of the product.
Mg-Zn is viewed as perhaps the majority promising binary system for rising far above the
ground strength casting or wrought alloys because of the strong precipitation hardening
comeback in this system. In addition, this system meets the want for low-cost alloys [10-11]. To
advance this and other capable alloy systems, principle or policy need to be established for
selecting appropriate alloying additions and including micro-alloying add-ons; e.g., to further
enhance age harden respond and mechanical properties. Some published work has already
illustrated the great potential of micro-alloying strategies in the Mg-Zn system.
Lanthanum is one of the rare earth elements (REEs), the addition of a small amount of
lanthanum to steel, improves its malleability, resistance to the impact and ductility. The addition
of 1% of lanthanum may increases the hardness of this metal, creep resistance and decrease wear
rate [12-15].Although scientific research is the principal destination for the rare earths that are
subjected to improve microstructure and mechanical properties. The chemical composition of
alloy stir casted shown in table 1.

Table no. 1 chemical composition of the developed alloy

Sample Magnesium Aluminium Zinc Lanthanum Remarks

No. 1
Alloy Balanced 20 % 5% NIL Mg-20Al-5Zn
Alloy 2 99.9 % Pure
Balanced 6063
20 % 5% 99.9
1 %% Mg-20Al-5Zn-1La
Pure
The stir casting method is used to convert in liquid state of materials fabrication, in which a
dispersed phase (ceramic particles, short fibers) is mixed with a molten metal by means of
mechanical stirring. The liquid composite material is then cast by conventional casting methods
and may also be processed by conventional Metal forming technologies [16-18]. The following
parameter followed during the stir casting of Mg alloy as shown in fig.1.

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International Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Development Issue 7, Vol. 1 (January 2017)
Available online on http://www.rspublication.com/ijeted/ijeted_index.htm ISSN 2249-6149

Fig. 1 The stir casting setup [19]

Result & Discussion

Optical Microstructure
In the as-cast magnesium alloys consists of primary grains with the grain boundaries
precipitated with large phase particles, shown as Fig. 1(a). With the addition of lanthanum, the
Mg17Al12 phases were gradually rened and some small Mg17Al12 precipitates formed. The
precipitate phase appears in two morphologies: large particles and fine lamellar plates, shown as
Fig. 1(a, b), the addition of lanthanum rened the phase and formed the reticular phase on
grain boundary.

With the addition of lanthanum, some rod-like intermetallic phases are observed in the Fig. 2(b).
It was found that the rod-like phase was AlLa phase. In addition to rod- like AlLa phase, some
blocky phases are observed in the Fig. 2(b) indicated that the blocky phase was AlLaMn
ternary phase. In the magnesium alloy, there are four phases: primary , phase (Mg17Al12),
Al11La3. Furthermore, the matrix becomes depleted of aluminum due to the formation of more
Al11La3 phase as reported by [1].

(A) (B)
Fig.2 Optical microstructure of Mg alloy (A)Mg-20Al-5Zn (B)Mg-20AL-5Zn-1La

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X-Ray diffraction
In XRD, the physical content of the constituents present in the sample are indicated in the form
of a graph. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) of magnesium alloy is shown in figure 3(a). La
components have a strong affinity to combine with aluminium. As the melting points of the La is
higher than the melting point of the Mg, the formation and precipitation of La containing phases
and formation of (Mg) dendrites occur simultaneously at the initial stage of solidication.
Consequently, at eutectic temperatures, there will not be adequate amounts of aluminium to form
the continuous eutectic (Mg17Al12) phase. The overall increase in the hardness of the alloy with
increasing in La additions is due to the presence of hard La inter-metallics. The observed
decrease in the hardness of the Mg dendrite phase was probably due to the redistribution of Al
from (Mg) phase to the La containing phase as shown in fig 3(a) and 3(b). The increase of
hardness in the alloy may be related to the rened microstructure due to nucleation of Al phase.
Both the yield and ultimate tensile strength increased marginally at ambient temperature with the
addition of up to 1 wt% La elements. The reduction in the ductility with increase in La content in
Mg alloy is attributed to the increased length and size of brittle Al11La3as shown in fig 2.2.
Sliding of the grain boundaries is an important part of deformation mechanism at elevated
temperatures in Mg alloys.
It has been observed in the XRD Fig 3(b) that both Al11La3 and Al4La phase has induced in the
alloy 2. The tensile strength, yield strength of alloy 2 has maximum value by virtue of
development of Al11La3 and Al3La as also reported by [5].

1400
Mg
1200 Mg Al
17 12

1000

Intensity (cps)

800

600

400



200

0
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85
2 ( / 180 rad )

Fig. 3(a) XRD of Mg-20Al-5Zn

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International Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Development Issue 7, Vol. 1 (January 2017)
Available online on http://www.rspublication.com/ijeted/ijeted_index.htm ISSN 2249-6149

3000
Mg
Mg17Al12
2500
Al11La3

2000
Intensity (cps)

1500

1000


500

0
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85
2 ( / 180 rad )

Fig. 3(b) XRD of Mg-20Al-5Zn-1LA

Scanning electron microscopy

The alloy is presented with the microphotographs of Casted Mg alloy respectively. From figures
it can be observed that, the distributions of rare earth in the respective alloy are fairly uniform.
Further these figures reveal the homogeneity of the cast alloy. Cracks are also seen in the
microstructure. Scanning electron micrographs at lower magnification shows that the distribution
of lanthanum throughout the Scanning electron micrographs at higher magnification shows the
particlealloy interfaces.
Figure 4(a) and 4(b) shows the homogeneous distribution of lanthanum particles in alloy.
Homogeneous distribution of particles is desired for achieving better mechanical properties.
Homogeneous distribution of particles in a molten alloy is achieved due to the high shear rate
caused by stirring which also minimize the particles settling.

Element Weight%
Ok 19.34
Mg k 62.48
Al k 14.62
Zn k 3.56

Fig.4(a) SEM and EDS of Mg-20Al-5Zn

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International Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Development Issue 7, Vol. 1 (January 2017)
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Element Weight
Ok %
9.37
Mg k 69.14
Al k 16.44
Zn k 4.18
La k .87

.
Fig. 4(b) SEM and EDS of Mg-20Al-5Zn-1La

However, agglomeration of particles in some regions is clearly visible in all cases; this is due to
the presence of porosity associated to it. Presence of entrapped air and moisture in the rare earth
particles results in the voids porosity after casting. It is observed that the particleof alloy
interface of lanthanum is smooth alloy, which indicates relatively strong bonding between the
lanthanum and Mg based alloy.

Tensile strength
Tensile test is used to assess the mechanical behavior of the composites and matrix alloy.
Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), often shortened to tensile strength (TS) or ultimate strength, is
the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before
necking, which is when the specimen's cross-section starts to significantly contract. The
samples for the tensile test were cut from the composite blanks with power hacksaw followed by
the cutting on the shaper machine. The specimen having gauge length 50 mm, thickness 7 mm
and width 14 mm were prepared to perform the tensile test.

300 300
YS
UTS
250 hardness 250

200 200
Strength (MPa)

Hardness HV

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 1 2 3
Alloy

Fig.5 Tensile properties of developed alloy

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International Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Development Issue 7, Vol. 1 (January 2017)
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It shows in fig. 5 that with increase in rare earth wt. %, the YS and UTS increases. The yield
strength of alloy enhances with increase in percentage of lanthanum. The reason for this
may be either the proper mixing due to high viscosity of molten alloy or good interfacial
bonding between the particleinterfaces. This happens may be due to uniform dispersion of
rare earth lanthanum during the fabrication of alloy as also reported by [10, 14].

Micro hardness

A Vickers micro hardness tester was usually refers to static indentations made with loads not
exceeding 1 kgf for the hardness measurement. The specimens were prepared are
metallographic finished with different grades of emery paper and subsequently polished with
alumina. The hardness testing is complete on microscopic range with senior accuracy
instruments. The surface being tested usually require a metallographic finish and it was done
with the help of 100, 220, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 grit size emery paper. Load used on micro
hardness machine used was 300 gms at 100x optical zoom. The Vickers hardness test for Mg
alloy without lanthanum and the wt. % variation of different lanthanum alloy.

The above shown in fig. 5 that incorporation of lanthanum particles in Mg alloy reasonable
increase in hardness. The strengthening of the composite can be due to dispersion
strengthening as well as due to particle of lanthanum. Thus lanthanum as filler in magnesium
stirs casting increase hardness which is needed in various industries like automobile and
aerospace etc. also reported by [16].

Conclusion
The following conclusions were made by undertaking the project of stir casted Mg alloy with
and without addition of lanthanum on microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Al-Zn
alloy.
1. The addition of lanthanum runed phase and formed Al11La3 strengthening phase, which
greatly improved the mechanical properties of Mg alloy. With adding 1% lanthanum, the
ultimate tensile strength and yield strength increase.

2. So adding 1% lanthanum in Mg alloy could improve not only the mechanical properties like
tensile strength and hardness of the alloy.

3. The grain boundaries, acicular Al11LA3 and massive Al3La crystallize both within the grains
and along the grain boundaries.Mg17Al12 phase crystallizes in alloys carrying high composition
of aluminium.

4. Zinc addition enhances fluidity so that is not suitable for but high zinc content not fit for die-
casting of the evaluated alloys due to presence of eutectic compounds that crystallize at lower
temperatures relative to the alloy matrix, resulting in hot tearing when die-casting.

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