Effect of heat-treatment on microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties of Mg-Li-Al based alloy

In the present study, the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of as-cast Mg-9 wt.%Li-7 wt.%Al-1 wt.%Sn (LAT971) alloy during solid solution treatment are investi-gated. Further, the age softening of solid solution treated alloys is analyzed at 50 degrees C and 100 degrees C from 0.5 h to 5 h. The hardness of the alpha- and beta-phase of LAT971 alloy is observed to increase by similar to 61% and similar to 136%, respectively after solutionizing, when compared to that of as-cast condition. Further, the hardness of both the phases has decreased after aging treat-ment due to age-softening effect. Additionally, finite element modeling (FEM) is used to elicit the effects of microstructural changes on stress distribution of thermally treated LAT971. In addition, the solutionized condition has educed higher wear resistance than as-cast condi-tion of LAT971 alloy. The higher scratch hardness (similar to 1.35 and similar to 1.74 times for alpha- and beta-phase, respectively) resulted in the lower wear volume, and, subsequently, lower specific wear rate is obtained for solutionized alloy when compared to that of as-cast condition. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).