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

超过90%的美国制成品含有铸造金属部件，其制造过程涉及多个步骤，包括熔化原始金属和在铸件中凝固。整个运营的商业可行性和能效需要在最大化浇注速度的同时控制和预测产品质量。不幸的是，在加工过程中测量熔体的性能是困难的，到目前为止，质量测试只有在固化后才能进行。该奖项支持旨在提供一种使用甚高频声波(超声波)评估熔体性质的新工具的研究。预期的结果有望实现对铸造过程的实时监控，并导致新的加工方法，从而提高铸造的能效。在金属铸造中，在识别和表征颗粒、夹杂物和气泡等特征之后，可以实现对凝固前熔体性能的精确控制。超声波计量可以跟踪这些特征，同时还可以成像凝固前沿并测量熔体流动。不幸的是，以前在液态金属中实施的超声波通常是不可靠的和间歇性的。阻碍超声波计量的物理机制尚不清楚。这个合作项目将结合先进的物理和化学科学，在凝固之前通过超声波计量实现实时成像和流量测量。该项目将结合电化学和超声波技术进行熔体测量，以确定超声波、金属、氧化物和溶解气体之间相互作用的微观机制，以便进一步发展对熔体金属性质的实时监测。

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.