Collaborative Research: Ultrasound, Oxide, and Oxygen: Microscale Mechanisms for Next-generation Alloy Casting

美国90%以上的制成品都含有铸造金属部件，其制造过程涉及多个步骤，包括原始金属的熔化和铸件的凝固。整个操作的商业可行性和能源效率要求控制和预测产品质量，同时最大限度地提高铸造率。不幸的是，在加工过程中测量熔体的性质是困难的，迄今为止，质量测试只在凝固后进行。该奖项支持的研究旨在提供一种新工具，利用甚高频声波（超声波）来评估熔体特性。预期的结果有望实现铸造过程的实时监控，并导致新的加工方法，将提高铸造的能源效率。在金属铸造中，在确定晶粒、夹杂物和气泡等特征后，可以在凝固前精确控制熔体的特性。超声测量可以跟踪这些特征，同时还可以成像凝固前沿和测量熔体流动。不幸的是，以前在液态金属中实现超声波通常是不可靠的和间歇性的。阻碍超声计量的物理机制尚不清楚。该合作项目将结合先进的物理和化学科学，在凝固前通过超声波测量实现实时成像和流量测量。结合电化学和超声技术进行熔体测量，该项目将确定超声、金属、氧化物和溶解气体之间相互作用的微观机制，以便进一步开发熔融金属性能的实时监测。

More than 90 percent of U.S. manufactured goods contain cast metal components made with a process involving multiple steps, which include melting of the original metal, and solidification in casts. The commercial viability and energy efficiency of the entire operation require controlling and predicting product quality while maximizing the rate of casting. Unfortunately, measuring the properties of the melt during processing is difficult, and to date quality tests occur only after solidification. This award supports research aimed at providing a new tool to evaluate the melt properties using sound waves at very high frequency (ultrasound). The anticipated results are expected to enable real-time monitoring of the casting process, and lead to new processing methods that will increase the energy efficiency of casting. In metal casting, precise control of the melt properties prior to solidification can be achieved after identifying and characterizing features like grains, inclusions, and bubbles. Ultrasound metrology could track those features, while also imaging solidification fronts and measuring melt flow. Unfortunately, prior implementations of ultrasound in liquid metal have often been unreliable and intermittent. The physical mechanisms impeding ultrasound metrology are not understood. This collaborative project will couple advanced physical and chemical science to enable real-time imaging and flow measurement via ultrasound metrology, before solidification. Combining electrochemical and ultrasound techniques for melt measurements, the project will determine the microscale mechanisms of interaction among ultrasound, metal, oxide, and dissolved gas in order to enable the further development of real-time monitoring of molten metal properties.