Grain refinement and mechanism of CAl_（0.5）W_（0.5） compound in Mg-Al alloys

The effect of CAl0.5W0.5（CAW） compound on the grain refinement of Mg-Al based alloys was investigated.The results show that CAW compound is an effective and active grain refiner.The grain size of binary Mg-Al alloys is more than 500 μm,and it is changed to about 110 μm with a 1 wt.% CAW addition.The hardness increased with the decease of grain size monotonously.The mechanical properties are improved by the addition.The fine grain size is mainly ascribed to the dispersed Al2CO particles,which are very potent nucleating substrates for Mg-Al alloys.The nucleation cores formed by chemical reaction directly are well-distributed in the matrix.