Abstract:It was attempted to enhance and accelerate the separation of oxidation inclusions from magnesium alloy melt by virtue of ultrasonic agglomeration technology. In order to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of standing waves for ultrasonic purification of magnesium alloy melt, numerical simulation and relevant experiment were carried out. The numerical simulation was broken into two main aspects. On one hand, the ultrasonic field propagations within the cells with various shapes were characterized by numerical solutions of the wave equation and with a careful choice of geometry a nearly idealized standing wave field was finally obtained. On the other hand, within such a standing wave field the agglomeration behavior of oxidation inclusions in magnesium alloy melt was analyzed and discussed. The agglomeration time and agglomeration position of oxidation inclusions were predicted with numerical simulation method. The results show that the oxidation inclusions whose apparent densities are close to the density of the melt can agglomerate at wave nodes in a short time which to a great extent enhances and accelerates the separation of oxidation inclusions from magnesium alloy melt.

Key words: magnesium alloy melt; purification; standing waves; numerical simulation