Numerical simulation and comparison of a real Al–Si alloy with virtually generated alloys

Mechanical stress–strain curves are estimated by means of numerical simulation in order to analyze and compare the mechanical properties of a real Strontium–modified Al–Si alloy with virtually designed materials. The virtual materials are generated by a competitive stochastic growth model of the 3D coral–like morphology of the eutectic Si in Al–Si alloys. The experimental data for the real material was acquired using FEB/SEM tomography. The numerical simulations are based on finite element methods. The effects of coarsening the mesh size and using different degrees of the finite elements are discussed. The simulations show that there is high conformity between the mechanical properties of the real and virtual materials. Experiments are also performed to show that the mechanical behavior of the realizations of the stochastic model is sensitive to changes in the parameters that control the morphological characteristics of the Si component.