Yunbo Zhong et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S364 – S372
371
Fig. 8(a1) to 8(a3) illustrate how the EMBF break a droplet into small pieces. Switch on the EMC field, EMBF
will be generated by the interaction between imposing AC currents and applying static magnetic field. These forces
can act on all the conducting substance, so that the minority phase droplet should be subjected to the EMBF as
shown in Fig. 8(a1). Such EMBF can compress or tense the droplet because its direction alternates with time (Fig.
8(a2)), and finally, the strong enough compression or tension will break the droplet into pieces. These small pieces
are shape irregular as shown in Fig. 8(a3). This can explain why the shape of Bi droplets is irregular under sufficient
strong EMBF as shown in Fig. 8(a4). Moreover, it is worthy to mention that the smaller droplet has slower velocity
which retards the droplet collision and is benefit to achieve the homogeneous structure.
Fig. 8(b1) and 8(b2) explain how the EMBF change the droplet’s moving path. Without the EMC field, droplets
should sink down (or float up) almost along a straight path because of the big density difference between two
elements, liking the case shown in Fig. 8(b1). As revealed by the physical simulation (Fig. 7(b)), the droplet’s
moving direction can be shifted by the sufficient strong EMBF, and this results in a Z-like moving path as illustrated
in Fig. 8(b2). It has been known that the effective friction coefficient is higher if the droplet moves along the non-
straight path rather than a straight one [22], so that the Z-like moving path reduces the droplet’s velocity.
Additionally, the moving distance of a Z-like path is much longer than a straight one if the distance between the start
and end points is constant. The lengthened moving distance makes the droplet taking more time to reach the bottom
of sample or collide with the other one. This provides the possibility to achieve the homogeneous structure at a
lower cooling rate. These two effects both suppress the liquid separation and thereby facilitate achieving the
homogeneous structure.
6. Conclusions
A new method to fabricate the homogeneous hypermonotectic alloy was proposed that the EMC field assisting
solidification. The optimal process condition for achieving the entirely homogeneous solid structure of Zn-
30wt.%Bi alloy was found through the experiments, which was 85N/cm3 EMBF with the frequency of 50Hz. The
corresponding physical simulations were conducted to get deep understand of this method, which revealed that the
EMBF can mix the layered melt homogeneously and reduce the velocity of minority phase droplets. The former is
the precondition for achieving homogeneous solid structure and the latter one suppresses the liquid separation
thereby facilitates obtaining the homogeneous melt structure. Moreover, the physical simulation confirmed that the
optimal EMBF magnitude and frequency for achieving the entirely homogeneous structure do exist. Based on the
experiments and simulations, two physical models were proposed to illustrate how EMBF break the droplet into
small pieces and change the droplet’s moving path. These two effects are both dedicated to reduce the droplets’
velocity.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank supports from the National Science Foundation of China (No.50974085),
National High-tech R&D Program of China (No. 2009AA03Z109), Key Project from Science and Technology
Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 09dz1206401, No.08dj1400404 and No. 08DZ1130100), Development
Foundation for Talents in Shanghai (No.2009046), and Specialized Research Fund for Doctoral Program of Higher
Education (No.20093108110012).
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