Effect of Ultrasonic Melt Treatment on Solidification Structure of Fe-36Ni Invar Alloy

Abstract

AbstractThe effect of ultrasonic treatment on the solidification structure of Fe-36Ni invar alloy was investigated. The experiment results showed that the ultrasonic treatment before its solidification had no significant effect on the solidification structure. However, when ultrasonic was inputted into the molten alloy during its solidification process, the primary dendrites were broken up into lots of fragments and solidification structure was refined significantly. When ultrasonic treatment was applied in the melt doped with yttrium before its solidification, ultrasonic cavitation could break up precipitates into many small ones, which could refine its solidification structure as nucleation cores. In samples containing yttrium treated by ultrasonic at 1753 K, the number of the precipitates was 623/mm2 and its average size was 2.18 µm; while at 1803 K, they were 604/mm2 and 2.34 µm respectively. The ultrasonic cavitation had a similar effect at two different temperatures. The solidification structure refined greatly at 1753 K was due to its low pouring temperature.