Ex Situ Introduction and Distribution of Nonmetallic Particles in Aluminum Melt: Modeling and Experiment

Simulation results for mechanical mixing of aluminum melt using a mixing device are presented. It is found that an increase in the rotational velocity of the vortex device leads to intensive growth of turbulent diffusion in the liquid metal. Small vortices, although energetically weaker, can provide uniform mixing, creating regions of uniformity of several tens of microns. Experimental studies showed that use of a special mechanical mixing device enables injection of course titanium diboride particles and leads to significantly improved microstructure (reduction in average grain size from 900 μm to 400 μm) and mechanical properties of aluminum alloy A356. In particular, introduction of 0.2 wt.% titanium diboride particles using the vortex device leads to an increase in yield strength (from 15 MPa to 65 MPa) and ultimate tensile strength (from 140 MPa to 220 MPa) while preserving the ductility of the alloy (~4.5%) .