Damage Evaluation of Inclusions in Cast Aluminum Alloy by using Image-based Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

To understand the crack nucleation mechanism, the image-based finite element analysis was employed. The crack propagation mechanism have been studied, while the crack initiation mechanism is not revealed. Through the fatigue test and in situ CT observation, we have observed that the fatigue crack was nucleated from the breakage of Si particles and, the broken and intact Si particles were identified. By using the image-based modeling technique, the finite element models were generated so as to include the interested Si particle in the analysis domain. A few hundreds of Si particles and intermetallic compounds were contained in the finite element models. We examined the cause of crack initiation with the breakage of Si particles and the effect of intermetallic compounds against Si particles through numerical results.