Wenyi Hu

Study on hydrogen removal of AZ91 alloys using ultrasonic argon degassing process.

Argon degassing, ultrasonic degassing and a novel ultrasonic argon degassing treatment were applied for the hydrogen removal of AZ91 magnesium alloy. The hydrogen concentration, microstructures and mechanical properties have also been investigated. AZ91 alloys contains a high hydrogen concentration. The mechanical properties of the as-cast alloy are much improved using degassing process, which should be mainly attributed to the hydrogen removal. Among the three degassing process, the ultrasonic argon treatment is a high efficient process both for hydrogen removal and microstructure refining. One hand, ultrasonic wave could break up the purged argon bubble to improve the degassing efficiency of these bubbles. On the other hand, ultrasound could also generate many cavitation bubbles in the melt, which should account for the microstructure refinement. The ultrasonic argon treatment involves dynamics between the ascending argon bubbles and ultrasonic effects, such as cavitation and streaming, etc.

Electrical resistivity behaviors of liquid Pb-Sn binary alloy in the presence of ultrasonic field.

Electrical resistivity behaviors of liquid Pb-Sn alloys have been investigated in the presence of ultrasonic field. The process demonstrated significantly that electrical resistivity could reveal the precise influence caused by ultrasound. Details revealed by applying the resistivity measuring approach to the liquid Pb-Sn alloy show that the short ordered structures in the liquid could be modified by ultrasonic irradiation, and the resistivity approach could have application value in the ultrasonic irradiation process on the specific liquid metals and alloys.

The effect of low frequency-electromagnetic field on temperature field and microstructure during magnesium slab casting process

The effect of low-frequency electromagnetic field (LFEF) on temperature pattern and microstructure on both symmetry planes was investigated during the semi-continuous direct chilling (DC) casting process of magnesium slab. The distribution characteristics of magnetic flux density (B) and time average electromagnetic volume force density (F) were calculated. The weak value of F was found near the slab corner, which was clearly distinguished from the distribution of B. According to the temperature measurement results, LFEF made the mushy region much flatter than that of conventional DC casting and it was much more obvious in the thickness direction. Compared with conventional DC casting, the low-frequency electromagnetic casting (LFEC) process could decrease the average temperature gradient between the centre and border in the mushy zone. The microstructures on both symmetry planes were also refined at different levels during the LFEC process.