Numerical simulation on electromagnetic field,flow field and temperature field in semisolid slurry preparation by A-EMS

A two-dimensional computational model coupling an annular electromagnetic stirring（A-EMS） with a macroscopic heat and fluid flow analysis in Al-alloys semisolid slurry preparation was developed.The dynamic evolutions of the electromagnetic field,flow field,and temperature field were presented successfully by commercial software ANSYS 10.0 with corresponding experimental verification.A horizontally rotational electromagnetic field and,thereby,a more intensive velocity field were uniformly distributed in the stirred melt even at commercial frequency,and thus,a lower temperature difference in the stirred melt and subsequent uniformly fine microstructures were obtained compared with the normal electromagnetic stirring.The simulation results were in good agreement with experimental ones.

Efficient fabrication of semisolid nondendritic Al alloy slurry with high quality

Subjecting a normal mechanical vibration to a cooling slope plate,is a proposed method for preparing semisolid nondendritic slurry,named shear-vibration coupling sub-rapid solidification(SCS).Taking Al-8Si alloy as model material,the temperature field and distribution field of solid or liquid phase during SCS were simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics software to primarily choose the optimal processing parameters.Subsequently,the slurries were prepared with the parameters selected according to the simulation results and the microstructures of the slurries were experimentally investigated.Results indicate that the simulation results could provide a basis for roughly choosing the processing parameters,although the calculated solid fractions are always higher than the experimental ones.The processing parameters affect the primary grain size,shape factor and solid fraction mainly through altering the contact duration of melt on the plate,and thus affecting the cooling effect on the melt,nucleation rate,and grain dissociation and proliferation.Experiments with optimized processing parameters show that the primary grains in the slurry have an average size of about 32μm and shape factor of 1.38,and are quite uniform,even at the highest pouring rate of 2.81 kg·s^(-1),the size and shape factor are about 46μm and 1.7,respectively,which implies that the proposed SCS is a promising technology for efficient fabrication of high-quality Al slurry available for engineering applications.

Preparation of semi-solid AlSi7Mg alloy slurry with big capability

Semi-solid AlSi7Mg alloy slurry was prepared by low superheat pouring and weak traveling-wave electromagnetic stirring.The effects of pouring temperature and stirring power on the microstructure of AlSi7Mg alloy slurry were studied.The results show that the semi-solid AlSi7Mg alloy slurry of 5 kg can be prepared.This new technology can save energy and make the pouring process convenient.When the pouring temperature is decreased at a stirring power of 0.41 kW,the shape of primary α-Al grains gradually changes from dendritic-like to spherical.When the alloy melt is poured at the temperature（630°C） with a certain superheat,the pouring process becomes easier,and the spherical microstructure of AlSi7Mg alloy slurry can be prepared by the weak traveling-wave electromagnetic stirring.When the pouring temperature is 630°C,increasing the stirring power appropriately can result in better spherical primary α-Al grains,but if the stirring power is increased to a certain value（1.72 kW）,the shape of primary α-Al grains does not obviously improve when the stirring power is continually increased.

Comparison between two rheocasting processes of damper cooling tube method and low superheat casting

To produce a high quality semisolid slurry that consists of fine primary particles uniformly suspended in the liquid matrix for rheoforming, chemical refining and electromagnetic or mechanical stirring are the two methods commonly used. But these two methods either contaminate the melt or incur high cost. In this study, the damper cooling tube(DCT) method was designed to prepare semisolid slurry of A356 aluminum alloy, and was compared with the low superheat casting(LSC) method- a conventional process used to produce casting slab with equiaxed dendrite microstructure for thixoforming route. A series of comparative experiments were performed at the pouring temperatures of 650 °C, 638 °C and 622 °C. Metallographic observations of the casting samples were carried out using an optical electron microscope with image analysis software. Results show that the microstructure of semisolid slurry produced by the DCT process consists of spherical primary α-Al grains, while equiaxed grains microstructure is found in the LSC process. The lower the pouring temperature, the smaller the grain size and the rounder the grain morphology in both methods. The copious nucleation, which could be generated in the DCT, owing to the cooling and stirring effect, is the key to producing high quality semisolid slurry. DCT method could produce rounder and smaller α-Al grains, which are suitable for semisolid processing; and the equivalent grain size is no more than 60 μm when the pouring temperature is 622 °C.