Study on the effect of prolonged mechanical vibration on the grain refinement and density of A356 aluminum alloy

In the present paper, the effect of vibration frequency and time on the size of α-Al primary solid phase and density on an A356 aluminum alloy was studied. The vibration frequencies and times used were 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 Hz and 5, 10 and 15 min, respectively. It was observed that the increase in vibration time up to 15 min and vibration frequency up to 50 Hz led to decrease in the size of α-Al phase. The results show that maximum grain refinement was occurred at 50 Hz and 15 min vibration conditions. At these conditions, the size of α-Al phase decreased down to 173 μm and 53% grain refinement was achieved. However, it was observed that the increase in frequency up to 50 Hz and time up to 15 min led to increase in the density of A356 aluminum alloy. The best density was obtained at 50 Hz and 15 min resulting in density of 2.68 g/cm3.