The effect of electropulse on the solidification structure of commercially pure aluminium was studied. The orthogonal array L9 was used to determine the effect of three process parameters of electropulse modification （EPM）, which were pulse current intensity, pulse frequency, and treating time. For each factor, three levels were chosen to cover the experimental region. According to the experimental results, the solidification structure of commercially pure aluminium was modified from large grains with columnar crystals to finer grains with equiaxed crystals, by allowing the electropulse to act on liquid aluminium. However, the solidification structures could be refined differently at different EPM parameters. Certain EPM parameters should be selected to get the optimum solidification structure. Among the three parameters, pulse frequency was the most important factor influencing the solidification structure, the secondary factor was current intensity, and treating time was the third one. The optimum parameters were the pulse frequency of 5 Hz, the current intensity of 68 A, and the treating time of l0 s.
Heng Cui Yanbing Zong Daqiang Cang Lingzhen Li Jun Zhang
The activity coefficient of Al in molten Cu decreases with the increasing of electric current applied to the liquid alloy of Cu-0.2wt%Al. To investigate the mechanism, the quenching experimental results of the liquid Al-Cu alloy show that there is a re- markable change in structure, in which the solute congregates along the current direction especially for DC current. The mechanism of the activity coefficient change of Al in molten Cu-0.2wt%Al alloy treated by electrical field was discussed. Further, the results also provide an evidence for the short-range-ordered liquid metal.
