Aluminum - Silicon alloys are recognized as appropriate materials for high performance cast components used in transportation powertrain applications. A combination of excellent wear resistance, good thermal conductivity and low density make these materials good candidates for engine bore applications. It is well accepted that the tribological properties of these alloys are dictated by the presence of hard eutectic silicon particles and their distribution in the soft aluminum matrix. Three near-eutectic aluminum-silicon engine bore alloys manufactured by different processing routes such as sand casting, chill casting and spray compaction were investigated to determine the influence of solidification on evolution of microstructure of these alloys and to establish correlation of microstructure with tribological properties. The spatial distribution of the silicon particles in aluminum matrix is analyzed using various image analysis techniques and contact distribution studies. The chill cast alloy shows large columnar primary aluminum dendrites interspersed with coarse silicon particles. The sand cast and spray compacted alloys show better spatial distribution of refined silicon particles. Microstructures generated under different solidification modes are found to have varying morphologies. The crystallographic orientations of the dendritic and eutectic aluminum as well as that of the eutectic silicon were studied using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The eutectic silicon nucleating in chill cast alloy is found to exhibit strong orientation relationship with the aluminum matrix. The crystallographic orientation relationship shows that the solidification modes of the eutectics in these three alloys are different, from alloy to alloy, due to their different solidification rates and due to the addition of grain refiners and modifiers. The hardness values of the aluminum matrix and silicon particles of these alloys were found using nanoindentation and micro indentation tests. Preliminary wear studies were carried out on etched and unetched test alloys in dry reciprocating sliding. The results show that of the three test alloys, the alloy in which eutectic regions nucleate heterogeneously from the primary aluminum dendrites gives the best wear resistance and the highest hardness. The very low friction coefficient recorded for the etched alloys is accounted for by the insitu formation of a thin sheet of tribofilm on the protruding silicon particles. The physical and chemical natures of this protective film are being investigated.

Due to recent legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions into the environment through weight reduction, the automotive and aerospace industries are using light alloys such as aluminium silicon (Al–Si) and aluminium zirconium (Al–Zr) instead of steel due to their excellent mechanical properties and low weight to strength ratio. In order to further improve mechanical and metallurgical properties in these alloys, grain refinement is usually used in industry. However, the current and most widely used grain refiner Al–5Ti–B is unable to refine Al–Si alloys with silicon content greater than 3 wt.%., and Al–Zr alloys due to poisoning of the refiner by silicon and zirconium. The Al–5Ti–B refiner also contains larger Al3Ti particles and agglomerates of TiB2 which affect its efficiency and suitability in industrial applications where thin sheets are required. In this study, a new technique which improves the microstructure and efficiency of the Al–5Ti–B refiner has been developed. This involves the reaction of potassium tetrafluoroborate (KBF4) and potassium hexafluorotitanate (K2TiF6) salts at shorter reaction time before ultrasonic processing during solidification. This leads to the formation of a new Al3Ti morphology and de-agglomeration of TiB2 particles which enhances its grain refinement efficiency by 20%. Secondly, through phase diagram analysis of Al grain refining systems and crystallography studies, it was observed that Al3Ti and Al3Nb display similar lattice parameters with atomic misfit of 4.2% and would undergo a peritectic reaction with α-Al at low contact angles. Based on this, and using the duplex nucleation theory and poisoning by Si and Zr, a new quaternary grain refiner containing aluminium, titanium, niobium and boron (Al–4Ti–Nb–B) has been developed. This novel grain refiner has been found to be efficient in Al–Si alloys and Al–Zr, both at laboratory and industrial scales, and to improve the mechanical properties of the alloys despite the presence of Ti in the alloy. It was observed that the addition of Nb to an Al–Ti–B system leads to the formation of solid solution phases of Al3Ti1-xNbx, Al3Nb1-xTx, and (Ti1-xNbx)B2 which prevents poisoning by Si and Zr. Experimental simulations showed that Al3Nb1-xSix rather than Ti(Al1-xSix)3 are formed in Al–Si alloys, and Al3(Ti1-xNbx) and (Al3Ti1-xNbx)B2 phases are formed in Al–Zr alloys rather than Al3(Zrx,Ti1-x), B2(Zrx,Ti1-x) or ZrB2 phases. A new grain refining mechanism, ‘The Quad Nucleation Theory’ based on four nucleation events in Al–4Ti–Nb–B has been proposed. Other newly developed quaternary and ternary novel grain refiners capable of refining aluminium silicon alloys are also presented in this thesis. This includes a novel method of refining Al–Si alloys using phosphorus and niobium.

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Lightweight aluminium-silicon alloy is an attractive material for making engine cylinders in automobiles. It imparts good power to weight ratio to the engine. High silicon containing aluminium alloys are used in current engine block castings where the bore surface is etched or honed to partially expose the silicon particles to provide the primary contact between the piston ring and certain regions of the piston and the cylinder. Piston reversal near the top dead centre however causes starvation of lubrication which leads to wear. To explore the wear behaviour of etched aluminium-silicon alloys under nominally dry conditions and extreme lubricated conditions, a host of mechanical and spectroscopic techniques are used here to characterize mechanical and chemical changes caused by wear. In the absence of complex chemical transformations on the wear surface in dry condition, allows a close examination of surface and subsurface microstructures. Given this understanding of the wear under dry condition, we explore the effect of boundary lubrication, where chemical transformations leading to surface modifications are involved. In dry sliding tribology of aluminium-silicon alloy slid against a steel ball four stages of wear are identified; ultra-mild wear, mild wear, severe wear and post severe oxidative wear. In the ultra-mild wear regime silicon particles bears the load. Transition to mild wear occurs when the protruded silicon particles disappear(by sinking and fracture) under higher pressure and sliding. The sinking of silicon particles under normal loading is further investigated using a naoindenter. It is found that the resistance to sinking of such particles into the matrix increases with the unexposed surface area to the buried volume of the particles. In that sense, small particles are seen to provide the stiffest resistance to sinking. While in ultra-mild wear regime the basic energy dissipation mechanism is sinking/tilting, in mild wear regime the subsurface is either in an elastic or an incipiently plastic state. Subsurface plasticity in mild wear regime leads to a grain refinement, fracture of silicon and nucleation of cracks at silicon-matrix interfaces but does not promote large scale flow of the matrix. Transition to severe wear occurs when the contact pressure exceeds the plastic shakedown limit. Under this condition gross plasticity leads to a severe fragmentation of silicon particles and the fragmented silicon are transported by the matrix as it undergoes incremental straining with each cyclic contact at the asperity level. A large reduction in the inter-particle distance com-pared to that in a milder stage of wear, gives rise to high strain gradients in the severe wear regime which contribute to the enhancement of dislocation density. The resulting regions of very high strains at the boundaries of the recrystallised grains as well as within the subgrains lead to the formation of microvoids/ cracks. This is accompanied by the formation of brittle oxides at these subsurface inter-faces due to enhanced diffusion of oxygen. We believe that the abundance of such microcracks in the near surface region, primed by severe plastic deformation, is what distinguishes a severe wear regime from that in the mild wear. The transition from severe wear to post severe oxidative wear is thermally induced and it transfers the metal to metal contact interaction to metal to ceramic interaction. A thick oxide layer is abraded and spalls while the metal underneath continues to flow and delaminate. A study of lubricated tribology of ultra-mild and mild wear regime of aluminium-silicon alloy shows that the initial stages of sliding friction is controlled by the abrasion of the steel pin by the protruding silicon particles of the aluminium-silicon disc. Thegeneration of nascent steel chips helps to breakdown the additive in the oil by a cationic exchange that yields chemical products of benefits to the tribology. The friction is initially controlled by abrasion, but the chemical products gain increasing importance in controlling friction with sliding time. After long times, depending on the contact pressure, the chemical products determine sliding friction exclusively. In the mild wear chemically induced low friction is achieved in short periods of time whereas in ultra-mild wear regime it takes very long time to reach this low friction state. While the basic dissipation mechanisms are the same in the ultra-mild wear and mild wear regimes ,the matrix remains practically unworn in the low pressure ultra-mild wear regime. In the higher pressure mild wear regime at long sliding times a small but finite wear rate prevails. Incipient plasticity in the subsurface controls the mechanism of wear.