To improve the thermophysical properties of Al alloy for thermal management materials, the Cu-coated carbon fibers (CFs) were used as reinforcement to improve the thermal conductivity (TC) and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of Al-12Si. The CFs reinforced Al matrix (CFs/Al) composites with different CFs contents were prepared by stir casting. The effects of the CFs volume fraction and Cu coating on the microstructure, component, TC and CTE of CFs/Al composites were investigated by scanning electron microscopy with EDS, X-ray diffraction, thermal dilatometer and thermal dilatometer. The results show that the Cu coating can effectively improve the interface between CFs and the Al-12Si matrix, and the Cu coating becomes Al2Cu with Al matrix after stir casting. The CFs/Al composites have a relative density greater than 95% when the volume fraction of CFs is less than 8% because the CFs uniform dispersion without agglomeration in the matrix can be achieved by stir casting. The TC and CTE of CFs/Al composites are further improved with the increased CFs volume fraction, respectively. When the volume fraction of CFs is 8%, the CFs/Al composite has the best thermophysical properties; the TC is 169.25 W/mK, and the CTE is 15.28 × 10– 6/K. The excellent thermophysical properties of CFs and good interface bonding are the main reasons for improving the thermophysical properties of composites. The research is expected to improve the application of Al matrix composites in heat dissipation neighborhoods and provide certain theoretical foundations.

The investigation on the lightweight of automobiles has been underway in commercial vehicles as well as passenger cars due to global warming and strengthening of European emission standards. In this study, the V-arm were developed for lightweight parts using aluminum alloy instead of steel with high pressure die casting processing. This study has focused on lightweight adaptive concept design. Several models of V-arm were designed and analyzed for the fluidity and solidification. V-arm was produced with ADC12 by high pressure die-casting process. The mechanical properties of developed V-arm were measured; such as tensile strength, elongation, shear strength, and durability. The possibility of mass production with the light weight aluminum V-arm substitute from the steel. The weight was reduced about 38% from 16kg to 9.98kg. The productivity was improved with decreasing the process from 8 to 5 by All-in-0ne process using high pressure die-casting.

In this study, the weldability of ADC12 FSW joints obtained by the load control type of the FSW machine is examined. The higher the tool plunge downforce the wider the range of the optimum FSW conditions is obtained. However, there is a limit of optimum range with increasing the tool plunge downforces. The three different types of defects are formed in ADC12 FSW joints, depending on the welding conditions. One is a large mass of flash due to the excess heat input, another is a cavity or groove-like defects caused by insufficient heat input and the other is a cavity caused by the abnormal stirring. As for the abnormal stirring, it is very clearly seen that the shape of the top part on the advancing side in the stir zone is completely different. For this type of defect, the effect of the tool plunge downforce is not significant, though the size of the defect due to insufficient heat input significantly is decreased with the increasing downforce

The microstructure and tensile properties of Al-Mn/Al-Si hybrid aluminum alloys prepared by electromagnetic duocasting were investigated. Only the Al-Mn alloy showed the typical cast microstructure of columnar and equiaxed crystals. The primary dendrites and eutectic structure were clearly observed in the Al-Si alloy. There existed a macro-interface of Al-Mn/Al-Si alloys in the hybrid aluminum alloys. The macro-interface was well bonded, and the growth of primary dendrites in Al-Si alloy occurred from the macro-interface. The Al-Mn/Al-Si hybrid aluminum alloys with a well-bonded macro-interface showed excellent tensile strength and 0.2% proof stress, both of which are comparable to those values for binary Al-Mn alloy, indicating that the strength is preferentially dominated by the deformation of the Al-Mn alloy side. However, the degree of elongation was between that of binary Al-Mn and Al-Si alloys. The Al-Mn/Al-Si hybrid aluminum alloys were fractured on the Al-Mn alloy side. This was considered to have resulted from the limited deformation in the Al-Mn alloy side, which led to relatively low elongation compared to the binary Al-Mn alloy.