The cavitation erosion of ultrasonic sonotrode during large-scale metallic casting: Experiment and simulation

Yang Tian; Zhilin Liu; Xiaoqian Li; Lihua Zhang; Ruiqing Li; Ripeng Jiang; Fang Dong

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2017.12.053

The cavitation erosion of ultrasonic sonotrode during large-scale metallic casting: Experiment and simulation

Ultrason Sonochem. 2018 May:43:29-37. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2017.12.053. Epub 2018 Jan 2.

Authors

Yang Tian¹, Zhilin Liu², Xiaoqian Li³, Lihua Zhang³, Ruiqing Li⁴, Ripeng Jiang⁴, Fang Dong⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China; IMDEA Materials Institute, C/Eric Kandel 2, 28906 Getafe, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: zhilin.liu@csu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China; Light Alloy Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China.
⁴ Light Alloy Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China.

PMID: 29555286
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2017.12.053

Abstract

Ultrasonic sonotrodes play an essential role in transmitting power ultrasound into the large-scale metallic casting. However, cavitation erosion considerably impairs the in-service performance of ultrasonic sonotrodes, leading to marginal microstructural refinement. In this work, the cavitation erosion behaviour of ultrasonic sonotrodes in large-scale castings was explored using the industry-level experiments of Al alloy cylindrical ingots (i.e. 630 mm in diameter and 6000 mm in length). When introducing power ultrasound, severe cavitation erosion was found to reproducibly occur at some specific positions on ultrasonic sonotrodes. However, there is no cavitation erosion present on the ultrasonic sonotrodes that were not driven by electric generator. Vibratory examination showed cavitation erosion depended on the vibration state of ultrasonic sonotrodes. Moreover, a finite element (FE) model was developed to simulate the evolution and distribution of acoustic pressure in 3-D solidification volume. FE simulation results confirmed that significant dynamic interaction between sonotrodes and melts only happened at some specific positions corresponding to severe cavitation erosion. This work will allow for developing more advanced ultrasonic sonotrodes with better cavitation erosion-resistance, in particular for large-scale castings, from the perspectives of ultrasonic physics and mechanical design.

Keywords: Cavitation erosion; Large-scale casting; Numerical simulation; Power ultrasound; Ultrasonic sonotrode.