摘要：New challenges for the Aluminium alloysused for the production of castings forautomotive engine components are comingfrom the evolution trend of Internalcombustion engines towards higher specificpower output. Cylinder heads, in particular,have to withstand higher operatingtemperatures and stress levels. The presentstudy is aimed to evaluate the mechanicalproperties at high temperature of Al-Si-Cualuminium alloys traditionally used for theproduction of cylinder head castings. Theobtained results are very promising,especially for what concerns the modifiedalloys. In fact, the resistance of base Al-Si-Cualloy is fairly good up to 150°C, but drops at250°C, while some interesting improvementshave been achieved by modifying thecomposition of the base alloy with theaddition of Mn and Ni, resulting in anincrease of strength and ductility at both roomand high temperatures. Further studies relatedto High Cycle Fatigue and creep resistance athigh temperature are under way. Moreover,the research will be continued alsoconsidering other alloys families, like Al-Mgand Al-Cu and the results will be discussed ina second part of the article.RI
