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Influences of Super-Gravity Field on Aluminum Grain Refining

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Abstract

The influence of a super-gravity field on metal grain refining has been mainly investigated using industrial pure aluminum as an example. The relationship between the super-gravity field (gravity coefficient of less than 1000) and the grain size in the equiaxed crystal zone was studied, and the corresponding mechanism for grain refining was discussed in detail. The effect of the super-gravity field on grain refining was remarkable, and the relationship could be well fitted by the second-decreasing-exponential function. For aluminum, the grain size decreased rapidly as the gravity coefficient increased from 1 to 250, and then remained nearly unchanged from 250 to 1000. Under the experimental conditions, the main mechanism was that the fragments of dendritic grains—generated by super-gravity—acted as the nucleation sites and resulted in grain refining. Further, the change of nucleation Gibbs free energy, directly caused by super-gravity, was not remarkable enough to refine the grains, which could be suggested by the stable freezing points under different super-gravity fields.

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Notes

  1. 1070 is a trademark of Aluminum alloy in China National Standard.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50804043 and 50674011) and Major Programs on Equipment Development of the Chinese Academy of Science (Grant No. YZ0618).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China, 100190

    Lixin Zhao (Doctoral Student), Zhi Wang (Vice Professor) & Mingyong Wang (Doctoral Student)

  2. The China Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China, 100049

    Lixin Zhao (Doctoral Student)

  3. Key Laboratory of Ecologic and Recycle Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, P.R. China, 100083

    Zhancheng Guo (Professor)

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  1. Lixin Zhao
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  2. Zhancheng Guo
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  3. Zhi Wang
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  4. Mingyong Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhancheng Guo.

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Manuscript submitted July 9, 2009.

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Zhao, L., Guo, Z., Wang, Z. et al. Influences of Super-Gravity Field on Aluminum Grain Refining. Metall Mater Trans A 41, 670–675 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-009-0130-9

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