Purification of an industrial aluminum alloy by melt stirring during Ohno Continuous Casting process

With the purpose of upgrading the purity of a dilute industrial aluminum alloy during Ohno Continuous Casting (OCC) process through the use of forced melt stirring, the critical stirring intensity required under a casting speed of 2 mm/min was numerically determined. The determined critical stirring intensity induces convective velocity magnitudes into the melt which are effective in transporting solutes from the solute boundary layer into the bulk melt. It was found that, with adequate melt stirring, production of substantially long and high purity ingots during OCC is possible before their purity diminishes to lower than the initial alloy purity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.