Liquation cracking and its effects in aluminum alloy armatures

Author

Yeoh, A. ; Prabhu, G. ; Persad, C.

Author_Institution

Inst. for Adv. Technol., Texas Univ., Austin, TX, USA

Volume

33

Issue

1

fYear

1997

fDate

1/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

419

Lastpage

425

Abstract

Experiments were performed using four different aluminum alloy armatures to study liquation cracking and its effects on armature performance. The four materials tested were Al 1100, Al 6082, Al 7075, and Al 7475. Of these, only the Al 1100 (commercially pure aluminum) armatures were free of gross cracking after exit from the launcher. The Al 6082, Al 7075, and Al 7475 armatures experienced fracture and structural deterioration as observed in high speed photographs of the in-flight bodies and the condition of the recovered armatures. Metallography of the recovered armatures revealed that liquation of the grain boundary phases in Al 7075 and Al 7475 had contributed to the structural failures in these armatures. The results suggest that a composite armature should be designed using different aluminum alloys to separately perform the sliding contact and structural functions

Keywords

aluminium alloys; cracks; dynamic testing; electromagnetic launchers; failure analysis; fracture; grain boundaries; materials testing; Al 1100; Al 6082; Al 7075; Al 7475; Al alloy armatures; EM launcher; composite armature; fracture; grain boundary phases; high speed photography; liquation cracking; metallography; sliding contact function; structural deterioration; structural failures; Aluminum alloys; Artificial intelligence; Boring; Conducting materials; Grain boundaries; Railguns; Silicon alloys; Solids; Temperature; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.560049

Filename

560049