Exploring the Particle Reconfiguration in the Metallic Materials under the Pulsed Electric Current

Abstract

The dissolution, refinement, and separation of the particles are one of the core metallurgical processes to control the quality of metallic materials. The dimensional changes and controlled motion of the particles have attracted great attention due to their important contribution to the corrosion resistance, service life, and mechanical properties of metallic materials. In general, the dimensional change of the precipitates is controlled by heat treatment, while the separation or modification of the inclusions is completed by means of filtration, argon blowing, and Ca addition. Sometimes, these methods are inefficient and cannot meet the in situ operation requirement in a particular working environment. This study aims to introduce a new idea of electropulsing metallurgy to achieve direct control for the particles, and this technique is efficient and green. The production of high‐quality steels is achieved by the refinement and separation purification of the inclusions. The regeneration of the aged stainless steel used in nuclear power plant is obtained by the dissolution of precipitates. Therefore, electropulsing metallurgy provides a new technique to control the particle morphology and meets the needs for clean smelting purification and high‐performance metallic materials fabrication. If substantive progress is to be made in this field, some difficulties are highlighted here because the understanding on electropulsing processing is limited.