Surface-Driven High-Pressure Processing

The application of high pressure favors many chemical processes, providing higher yields or improved rates in chemical reactions and improved solvent power in separation processes, and allowing activation barriers to be overcome through the increase in molecular energy and molecular collision rates. High pressures-up to millions of bars using diamond anvil cells-can be achieved in the laboratory, and lead to many new routes for chemical synthesis and the synthesis of new materials with desirable thermody- namic, transport, and electronic properties. On the industrial scale, however, high-pressure processing is currently limited by the cost of compression and by materials limitations, so that few industrial processes are carried out at pressures above 25 MPa. An alternative approach to high-pressure processing is pro- posed here, in which very high local pressures are generated using the surface-driven interactions from a solid substrate. Recent experiments and molecular simulations show that such interactions can lead to local pressures as high as tens of thousands of bars （1 bar=1×10^5 Pa）, and even millions of bars in some cases. Since the active high-pressure processing zone is inhomogeneous, the pressure is different in dif- ferent directions. In many cases, it is the pressure in the direction parallel to the surface of the substrate （the tangential pressure） that is most greatly enhanced. This pressure is exerted on the molecules to be processed, but not on the solid substrate or the containing vessel. Current knowledge of such pressure enhancement is reviewed, and the possibility of an alternative route to high-pressure processing based on surface-driven forces is discussed. Such surface-driven high-pressure processing would have the advantage of achieving much higher pressures than are possible with traditional bulk-phase processing, since it eliminates the need for mechanical compression. Moreover, no increased pressure is exerted on the containing vessel for the process, thus eliminating concerns about materials failure.

Heat Transfer between Casting and Die during High Pressure Die Casting Process of AM50 Alloy-Modeling and Experimental Results

A method based on die casting experiments and mathematic modeling is presented for the determination of the heat flow density （HFD） and interfacial heat transfer coefficient （IHTC） during the high pressure die casting （HPDC） process.Experiments were carried out using step shape casting and a commercial magnesium alloy,AM50.Temperature profiles were measured and recorded using thermocouples embedded inside the die. Based on these temperature readings,the HFD and IHTC were successfully determined and the calculation results show that the HFD and IHTC at the metal-die interface increases sharply right after the fast phase injection process until approaching their maximum values,after which their values decrease to a much lower level until the dies are opened.Different patterns of heat transfer behavior were found between the die and the casting at different thicknesses.The thinner the casting was,the more quickly the HFD and IHTC reached their steady states.Also,the values for both the HFD and IHTC values were different between die and casting at different thicknesses.

Effects of process parameters on morphology and distribution of externally solidified crystals in microstructure of magnesium alloy die castings

During the cold-chamber high pressure die casting(HPDC) process, samples were produced to investigate the microstructure characteristics of AM60B magnesium alloy. Special attention was paid to the effects of process parameters on the morphology and distribution of externally solidified crystals(ESCs) in the microstructure of magnesium alloy die castings, such as slow shot phase plunger velocity, delay time of pouring and fast shot phase plunger velocity. On the basis of metallographic observation and quantitative statistics, it is concluded that a lower slow shot phase plunger velocity and a longer delay time of pouring both lead to an increment of the size and percentage of the ESCs, due to the fact that a longer holding time of the melt in the shot sleeve will cause a more severe loss of the superheat. The impingement of the melt flow on the ESCs is more intensive with a higher fast shot phase plunger velocity, in such case the ESCs reveal a more granular and roundish morphology and are dispersed throughout the cross section of the castings. Based on analysis of the filling and solidification processes of the melt during the HPDC process, reasonable explanations were proposed in terms of the nucleation, growth, remelting and fragmentation of the ESCs to interpret the effects of process parameters on the morphology and distribution of the ESCs in the microstructure of magnesium alloy die castings.