Creep resistance of as-cast Mg-5Al-5Ca-2Sn alloy

In the present study, creep properties of as-cast Mg-5Al-5Ca-2Sn (AXT552) alloy were investigated by means of a GWT304 creep testing machine at temperatures of 175 °C and 200 °C in the stress range of 35-90 MPa. Results show that creep rates increase with applied stress at an identical temperature. Creep strain at 100 hours is 0.0518% and 0.083% at creep conditions of 175°C/75MPa and 200°C/60MPa, respectively, which is comparable to MRI230D and much lower than most of AX series alloys. By the observation and analysis for samples before and after creep tests using a Shimadzu XRD-7000 type X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and a Hitachi S-3400N type scanning electron microscope (SEM), it was found that Al2Ca (C15) phase precipitated out of C36 phase or matrix. The cavity formation and connection at the interface of soft matrix and hard intermetallics caused the propagation of cracking along the eutectic phase during creep process and dislocation accommodated grain/ phase boundary sliding is expected to be the dominant creep mechanism.