Casting is a manufacturing process in which liquid metal is poured into a mold where it solidifies. The application during the casting process of a magnetic field which interacts with the thermoelectrical current generated by the temperature gradient along dendrites produces electromagnetic forces that alter convection patterns in the melt. As a function of the magnetic field intensity, this can affect the solidification process, leading potentially to alterations in solute distribution and/or dendrite morphology.
This project is a continuation of three previous semester projects; it explores the impact of static magnetic fields with different intensities ranging from 0 to 1.5 T on the solidification of cast Al-Si alloys. The student will be involved in the casting of the Al-Si alloys within an electromagnet. The student will then compare resulting microstructures with results obtained by previous students on Al-Cu alloys. To this end, the student will characterize the samples using standard metallographic techniques including optical microscopy, examining microstructural features to detect whether alterations were caused by the magnetic field that scale with its intensity, and interpret results on the basis of the literature including in particular the theory of alloy solidification and the physics of the interaction between metal alloy solidification and a magnetic field.
Responsible supervisors: Abdellah Abdesselam, Ignacio Rodriguez Barber and Julie Gheysen
Contact: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] in a single email.