Fundamental studies on cavitation melt processing

The application of ultrasound to industrial casting processes has attracted research interest during the last 50 years. However, the transfer and scale-up of this advanced and promising technology to industry has been hindered by difficulties in treating large volumes of liquid metal due to the lack of understanding of certain fundamentals. In the current study experimental results on ultrasonic processing in deionised water and in liquid aluminium (Al) are reported. Cavitation activity was determined in both liquid environments and acoustic pressures were successfully measured using an advanced high-temperature cavitometer sensor. Results showed that highest cavitation intensity in the liquid bulk is achieved at lower amplitudes of the sonotrode tip than the maximum available, suggesting nonlinearity in energy transfer to the liquid, while the location of the sonotrode is seen to substantially affect cavitation activity within the liquid. Estimation of real-time acoustic pressures distributed inside a crucible with liquid Al was performed for the first time.