In-Production Rheometry of Semi-Solid Metal Slurries

Abstract

Semi-solid aluminium alloy processing (SSM) has advanced into a more mature process with many applications. The current paper aims to investigate the in-process behaviour of a production slurry using an engineering approach to estimate the properties. A method to assess the rheological properties of a semi-solid metal slurry was tested and found capable of producing meaningful measurements. The foundations of this were to use a Rushton turbine setup for the assessment through a model to optimize the factors included in the slurry rheology. In the analysis of the static and dynamic part of the viscosity, it was concluded that the slurry turns increasingly into a solid with increasing solid fractions where the static shear strength dominates the rheology more and more compared to the dynamic components. The static yield strength was also found significantly more dominant with increasing solid fraction, suggesting that the industrial-scale analysis using models based on Ostwald–de Waale and Carreau modelling is far from sufficient for a process, such as the RheoMetal process, with a very rapid slurry generation.