Grain refinement of aluminium and its alloys by heterogeneous nucleation and alloying

Grain refinement of aluminium and its alloys is common industrial practice. The field has been extensively investigated by many workers over the past 50 years, not only to develop efficient grain refiners for different aluminium alloys, but also to achieve an understanding of the mechanism of grain refinement. The present review confines itself to the literature on grain refinement by heterogeneous nucleation and alloying. Initially, the fundamentals of grain refinement by inoculants are outlined. The types of grain refiner, Al-Ti-B master alloys in particular, and their methods of manufacture are next discussed. The grain refining tests to assess the efficiency of the grain refiners and the grain refining…