Peritectic solidification characteristics of Sb–Sn alloy under ultrasonic vibration

•Ultrasound refines the grain size of primary (Sb) phase by two orders of magnitude.•Peritectic transformation is promoted to a large extent by ultrasound.•Compressive strength of Sb–20%Sn alloy is enhanced by 71% within ultrasonic field.

Here we applied ultrasonic vibration to modify the solidification microstructure and mechanical property of peritectic Sb–20%Sn alloy. As ultrasound power increases, the faceted primary (Sb) phase tends to grow by non-faceted way, and its grain size is remarkably refined by nearly two orders of magnitude. Meanwhile, the volume fraction of peritectic SnSb phase in the solidification microstructures increases linearly from 29% to 78%, indicating that ultrasound promotes peritectic transformation to a large extent. The compressive strength for Sb–20%Sn alloy after ultrasonic solidification is enhanced by 71%.

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