Thermal and electrical conductivity of Mg–Zn–Al alloys

Abstract

In the present work, thermal and electrical conductivity measurement was conducted on the cast Mg–Zn–Al alloys (ZA alloys) in the wide composition range (1–6 wt-Zn, 1–10 wt-Al). For alloys with the same content of Zn, the thermal/electrical conductivity of ZA alloys decreased exponentially with Al composition without exception. For alloys with same Al content, variation of thermal/electrical conductivity showed a similar trend for most of the alloys except the case for 6 wt-Al, which followed ZA26>ZA36>ZA16>ZA56>ZA66. The microstructures of the selected alloy systems were investigated in detail, and the mechanism of thermal/electrical conductivity variation was thus proposed. The phase transformation with composition and the different effects of Zn and Al on the thermal/electrical conductivity of Mg alloys were believed as two controlling factors.