Experiment on Injection of SIC and BN Nanoparticles into Liquid Aluminum Using MHD Stirring with Subsequent Crystallization of the Melt

Abstract

The paper describes the technique and results of experiments on the introduction of SiC and BN nanoparticles into an aluminum melt contained in a cylindrical crucible with a water-cooled bottom and heated walls. The crucible was placed in an MHD stirrer, which generated a travelling and rotating magnetic fields ensuring in such a way bidirectional stirring of the liquid metal in the crucible. After introducing the reinforcing particles, aluminum was stirred and directionally crystallized. Reinforcing particles were introduced into molten aluminum as a component of pressed pellets. Pellets with diameter of 20 mm and thickness of 15 mm were made from a mixture of aluminum powder (100-156 µm) and reinforcing nanoparticles (100-200 nm) by pressing in a special pellet die. The concentration of reinforcing particles in the pellets was selected using preliminary experiments and was 5% of their total weight. In some experiments, the aluminum was reinforced with SiC nanoparticles introduced into the melt in the amount of 0.59%, 1.04%, 1.77%, while in other experiments the concentration of hexagonal BN nanoparticles introduced into aluminum was 7%, 1%, 1.8% of the ingot weight. As the experiment showed, the reinforcing particles formulated into tablets can be introduced into aluminum by means of MHD stirring. The dependence of the ultimate strength and electrical resistance of aluminum on the concentration of the reinforcing nanoparticles introduced into it has been obtained experimentally. It has been found that with an increase in the concentration of nanoparticles in aluminum, its ultimate strength and specific electrical resistance increase. The dependences of the ultimate strength and electrical resistance of aluminum on the concentration of SiC and BN nanoparticles are very similar and close to linear (in the investigated range of concentrations of introduced particles. With an increase in the concentration of introduced nanoparticles the mechanical strength of the resulting material grows faster than the electrical resistivity. In the experiments, the ultimate strength of the samples increased by 22%, while the electrical resistance increased by 5-6%. This opens up new possibilities for industrial applications of such materials, for example, in manufacture of self-supporting wires in power lines.