Creep of Slurry Squeeze-Cast ZA-27 Zinc Alloy with Different Solid Fractions at 140 °C

This research work was aimed at studying creep of a slurry squeeze-cast ZA-27 zinc alloy. The Gas-Induced Semi-Solid (GISS) technique was used for preparing semi-solid metal slurry with two different solid fractions. The ZA-27 alloy slurry was squeeze cast to form plate-like specimens with dimension of 100×100×15 mm3. The tensile specimens were machined from the squeeze-cast plates and heat-treated before mechanical test. Tensile creep tests were performed at 140 °C, at stresses of 20, 40, 60 and 80 MPa, in an ambient air. Two groups of specimens, the low solid fraction ZA-27 alloy (GISS 5s) and the high solid fraction ZA-27 alloy (GISS 15s) were tested for comparison of creep property. The results show that the GISS 5s has longer creep life than the GISS 15s. The power-law creep stress exponents (n) of GISS 5s and GISS 15s are 1.45 and 1.04, respectively. Based on the creep stress exponents found from the present study, it could be concluded that at the temperature of 140 °C and stress between 20 and 80 MPa, creep of both alloys was governed by the diffusional creep mechanism.