The effect of neodymium on the microcracks generated on the Al–17.5Si alloy surface treated by high current pulsed electron beam

Abstract In the present work, the effect of Nd on the microcracks generated on an Al–17.5Si alloy surface by a high current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB) was investigated. By a newly proposed site-fixed observation, the propagation of microcracks with increasing pulsed numbers first increases and then decreases due to the Nd element. The crack density decreases from 0.0669 mm/mm2 of 5 pulses to 0.00687 mm/mm2 of 50 pulses. EPMA analysis results indicate that Nd is uniformly distributed on the HCPEB-treated alloy surface. Nano-silicon particles and nano-Al cellular structures were formed by TEM observation, showing grain refinement of the alloy surface. The microcrack elimination is attributed to a decrease in the stress concentration in the primary Si phase during the cooling process of HCPEB. The electrochemical measurement shows that the corrosion current density decreases sharply by two magnitudes as the pulsed number increases after adding the Nd element, thus indicating an improved corrosion resistance. In contrast, in the HCPEB-irradiated sample without Nd, this value increases conversely due to the presence of numerous microcracks, thereby demonstrating a decreased corrosion resistance.