A Novel Ultrasonic Casting Process Using Controlled Cavitation and Melt Flow in Hot Top Molds

The present work introduces a novel ultrasonic DC casting process which allows producing billets of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys with greatly refined and uniformly distributed particles of primary Si. In the process, ultrasonic vibrations are introduced into an Al-17Si-0.01~0.03P melt in a hot top positioned on the mold by using a high-amplitude ceramic sonotrode. The hot top design and sonotrode arrangement provided a highly effective cavitation treatment of the melt in the hot top and well-controlled flow in the sump. A simplified model is proposed to explain the obtained results.