Solidification and Re-melting Phenomena During Slurry Preparation Using the RheoMetal™ Process

Abstract

The melting sequence of the enthalpy exchange material (EEM) and formation of a slurry in the RheoMetal™ process was investigated. The EEM was extracted and quenched, together with a portion of the slurry at different processing times before complete melting. The EEM initially increased in size/diameter due to melt freezing onto its surface, forming a freeze-on layer. The initial growth of this layer was followed by a period of a constant diameter of the EEM with subsequent melting and decrease of diameter. Microstructural characterization of the size and morphology of different phases in the EEM and in the freeze-on layer was made. Dendritic equiaxed grains and eutectic regions containing Si particles and Cu-bearing particles and Fe-rich particles were observed in the as-cast EEM. The freeze-on layer consisted of dendritic aluminum tilted by about 30 deg in the upstream direction, caused by the rotation of the EEM. Energy dispersion spectroscopy analysis showed that the freeze-on layer had a composition corresponding to an alloy with higher melting point than the EEM and thus shielding the EEM from the surrounding melt. Microstructural changes in the EEM showed that temperature rapidly increased to 768 K (495 °C), indicated by incipient melting of the lowest temperature melting eutectic in triple junction grain boundary regions with Al2Cu and Al5Mg8Si6Cu2 phases present. As the EEM temperature increased further the binary Al-Si eutectic started to melt to form a region of a fully developed coherent mushy state. Experimental results and a thermal model indicated that as the dendrites spheroidized near to the interface at the EEM/freeze-on layer reached a mushy state with 25 pct solid fraction, coherency was lost and disintegration of the freeze-on layer took place. Subsequently, in the absence of the shielding effect from the freeze-on Layer, the EEM continued to disintegrate with a coherency limit of a solid fraction estimated to be 50 pct.