Grain refining action of Ti existing in electrolytic low-titanium aluminum with Al-4B addition for superheated Al melt

Abstract The effects of superheating temperature on the grain refining efficiency of Ti existing in electrolytic low-titanium aluminum (ELTA) without and with the Al-4B addition and the Al-5Ti-1B master alloy in pure Al were comparatively investigated. The results show that the Ti existing in ELTA without Al-4B addition exhibits a certain grain refining efficiency when the melt superheating temperature is lower, but the efficiency decreases rapidly when the superheating temperature is higher. The grain refining efficiency of the Al-5Ti-1B master alloy is better than that of the Ti existing in ELTA without Al-4B addition at any superheating temperature, but it also decreases obviously with the increase of the superheating temperature. One important reason is that the TiB 2 particles coming from the Al-5Ti-1B master alloy can settle down at the bottom of the Al melt easily when the superheating temperature is increased, thus decrease the number of the potent heterogeneous nuclei retained in the Al melt. If the Al-4B master alloy is added to the ELTA melt, the grain refining efficiency of the Ti existing in ELTA can be improved significantly, and does not decrease with the increase of the superheating temperature. This perhaps provides us a possible method to suppress the effect of the superheated melt on the microstructures of aluminum..