Effects of an intermittent permanent magnet stirring on the melt flow and grain refinement of Al–4.5Cu alloy
Jing Zou, Haitao Zhang, Zibin Wu, Jiahui Wang, Baomian Li, Jianzhong Cui, Hiromi Nagaumi, Yinglong Li
Abstract
A novel technology, termed intermittent permanent magnet stirring (I-PMS), is proposed to improve the quality of aluminum alloy ingots. In this paper, the melt flow and solidification structure of Al–4.5Cu alloy were investigated through I-PMS. The grain refinement mechanism of I-PMS is also discussed. The results indicate that the melt flow patterns and distributions can be greatly affected by I-PMS. When I-PMS is applied during solidification, the melt undergoes a series of complicated periodic three-dimensional flows. Compared without I-PMS, the solidification structure of Al–4.5Cu alloy with I-PMS was remarkably refined, and the optimum solidification structure could be realized utilizing appropriate processing parameters.