Effects of filter materials on microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ91

The present investigation studied the effects of different kinds of ceramic foam filters (CFF) incorporating gas bubbling on the microstructure and mechanical properties of virgin AZ91 alloys, and the reactions between filters and Mg melt during filtration. The results show that the purification process of CFF incorporating gas bubbling process can obviously improve the R m and A of AZ91 alloy, especially the A. Amongst the selected four kinds of CFF, the MgO filter is the most suitable for filtrating Mg melt, and the filtration effective sequence of four kinds of filtrating materials is as follows: MgO>Al2O3>ZrO2>SiC. With MgO filter incorporating gas bubbling treatment under Ar flow rate of 2 L/min and temperature of 730 °C, the ultimate tensile strength R m and elongation A can be improved greatly from 175.3 MPa and 2.74% to 195.4 MPa and 4.54%, respectively. No inclusions are found on the fracture surface of the sample filtrated by MgO ceramic foam filter, and the fracture mode is quasicleavage crack.