Separation of inclusion particles from aluminum melt by super gravity

The increasing demand for high-quality aluminum alloys in the automobile industry and other manufacturing fields has motivated manufacturers to produce cleaner aluminum alloys. However, conventional methods can barely meet the cleanliness requirements of many applications due to their low removal efficiencies. To develop an innovative and highly efficient method for separating inclusions from aluminum melt, this study investigated the separation behavior of silicon particles by super gravity under different gravity fields using the primary silicon particles of Al-17%Si-4.5%Cu melt to simulate the inclusions in molten metal. The experimental results show that primary silicon particles accumulate in the upper region of samples obtained by super gravity, while the area in which there are no primary particle appears in the sample. The accumulation effect of the silicon particles improves as the gravity coefficients increase. In addition, the purification efficiency of samples obtained by super gravity increases as the gravity coefficient increases. This paper found the purification efficiency of samples to reach 84.98% at a gravity coefficient of G=500. Using the discrete phase model (DPM), the paper also analyzed the forces acting on the particles in the melt and simulated the separation behavior of silicon particles in the melt under various gravity fields. The simulation results indicate that the movement of silicon particles along the direction of super gravity approximately obeys Stokes' law. There results demonstrate that inclusion particles in aluminum melt can be separated effectively by super gravity.