Improving the solidification structure of commercially pure aluminium with electropulse acting on liquid metal

The effect of electropulse on the solidification structure of commercially pure aluminium was studied. The orthogonal array L9 was used to determine the effect of three process parameters of electropulse modification (EPM), which were pulse current intensity, pulse frequency, and treating time. For each factor, three levels were chosen to cover the experimental region. According to the experimental results, the solidification structure of commercially pure aluminium was modified from large grains with columnar crystals to finer grains with equiaxed crystals, by allowing the electropulse to act on liquid aluminium. However, the solidification structures could be refined differently at different EPM parameters. Certain EPM parameters should be selected to get the optimum solidification structure. Among the three parameters, pulse frequency was the most important factor influencing the solidification structure, the secondary factor was current intensity, and treating time was the third one. The optimum parameters were the pulse frequency of 5 Hz, the current intensity of 68 A, and the treating time of 10 s.