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Bubble size control during the gas injection foaming process in aluminum alloy melt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2015

Xingnan Liu ,
Yanxiang Li  and
Xiang Chen
Xingnan Liu
Affiliation:
Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China 100084; Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Beijing, China 100084; and The Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, MOE, Beijing, China 100084
Yanxiang Li*
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China100084; and Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Technology, MOE, Beijing, China 100084
Xiang Chen
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China100084; and Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Technology, MOE, Beijing, China 100084
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: yanxiang@tsinghua.edu.cn
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Abstract

The influences of parameters on the bubble size in aluminum alloy melt during the gas injection foaming process were studied. The four parameters were the orifice diameter (0.4–3.0 mm), the orifice numbers (1 and 4), the gas chamber volume (11–800 cm3), and the gas flux (10–282 L/h). It was found that the bubble size decreased with the decrease of the orifice diameter and the gas chamber volume, and with the increase of the orifice number. The effect of gas flux showed a dual-stage at different gas fluxes: the “metastable large bubble stage” and the “stable bubbling stage”. A modified semiempirical formula and a concept of “effective gas chamber volume,” which is the nominal chamber volume divided by the effective orifice number, were proposed. The bubble size calculated by the modified formula with the effective gas chamber volume agreed well with the experimental data.

Keywords

aluminum foamgas injectionbubble sizepore sizegas chamber volume
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 30 , Issue 7 , 14 April 2015 , pp. 1002 - 1010
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

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