Development of Grain Refinement in Aluminium Field

Abstract:

Some progresses of grain refinement in aluminium field in our group are involved in this paper. We invented a new preparation method of Al-Ti-B grain refiner with the application of high-intensity ultrasound in the preparation reaction. Owing to the optimization of TiB₂ particles morphology in the prepared grain refiner, the commercial purity aluminium grains can be refined as small as 45μm, which is superior to the limiting level of the present commercial grain refiner, 120μm. First-principles calculations on the Al/TiB₂ interface prove that the larger Al/TiB₂ interfacial energy than that between α-Al and aluminium melt is responsible for the poor heterogeneous nucleation of α-Al on TiB₂ particles with only TiB₂ particles in melt. When there is redundant solute Ti in the melt, it is theoretically revealed that the spontaneous segregation of solute Ti on TiB₂ particles plays an important role in the heterogeneous nucleation.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volumes 706-709)
• Pages: 402-407
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.706-709.402
• Online since: January 2012
• Authors: Bao De Sun, Yan Feng Han, Jun Wang
• Keywords: Al-Ti-B Master Alloy, First-Principle Calculations, Grain Refinement, Ultrasound (US)

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