Iron (Fe) is perceived as an accompanying impurity in aluminum silicon (AlSi) casting alloys. However, the formation of Fe-containing intermetallic phases, which mostly exhibit a plate-like morphology, impairs both the mechanical and casting properties. [1,2] This structural plate-like compound is referred to as the β-Al 4.5 FeSi phase. By increasing initial Fe content in the melt, the plate-like formation is promoted into a coarse lamellar morphology mainly due to diffusion. [3] Consequently, effective feeding with residual melt is hindered, and shrinkage porosity can be enhanced during solidification. [4][5][6] Furthermore, the platelike β-Al 4.5 FeSi morphology leads to stress concentrations at the coarse plate tips, significantly diminishing the casting ductility. [5,7,8] In fatigue crack propagation studies, the crack initiation site has been demonstrated on the plate-like β-morphology, where the plates can be either split longitudinally or completely separated during crack propagation. [1] Conversely, crack propagation at the star-like morphology is merely bypassed. [1]
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