Materials Science and Engineering A 499 (2009) 195–199

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Materials Science and Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Research on water simulation experiment of the rotating

impeller degassing process
Guofa Mi a,∗ , Shouping Qi b , Xiangyu Liu a , Jitai Niu a,b
a
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454000, China
b
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The purification technology by rotating impeller degassing (RID) is becoming one of the important meth-
Received 16 May 2007 ods to purify molten Al alloys. The degassing efficiency of the RID process is determined by the interaction
Received in revised form 23 May 2008 of many factors. The relationship between technological parameters and degassing efficiency can be
Accepted 2 July 2008
defined by building the proper mathematical model which can be used for guidance in practical produc-
tion. In this work, a quadratic polynomial model of degassing efficiency was built by using the orthogonal
Keywords:
regression method. The response equation of degassing rate to the gas flow rate, rotational speed and
Al alloy
blowing time was fitted by using multiple-regression estimation methods. Furthermore, the optimal pro-
Rotating impeller degassing
Water simulation
cessing parameters of the RID process were defined, namely rotational speed v = 374 rpm/min and gas
Orthogonal test flow rate q = 1.8 dm3 /min and the optimized parameters were confirmed by smelting trial.
© 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The solubility of H in liquid Al is 17 times larger than in solid Al,
which is the main reason of the gas hole in Al alloy castings [1–3].
As a result, the degassing process is a key link in the smelt process.
Chemical and physical methods can be used in the degassing pro-
cess, and the rotating impeller degassing (RID) process is one of the
most popular and effective techniques at present [4].
Because of the non-transparency of the liquid Al alloy, it is dif-
ficult to observe the shape and motion state of the gas bubbles in
the liquid Al alloy directly. The relationship among the influencing
factors on the RID process is not clear, so the water simulation test
was applied to analyze the degassing process of Al alloy in order
to obtain the optimum operating parameters, since it is important
to provide the theoretical foundation for the practical production
[5–7].
2. Experiment
Fig. 1 gives a schematic diagram of the RID system. The material
of the tube is graphite with outer diameter 80 mm, inner diame-
ter 10 mm and length 900 mm. The shape and dimensions of the
impeller are shown in Fig. 2.
A video camera was used to record the test procedures. Precise
PH test paper and a phenolphthalein indicator were applied in the
experiment to determine the PH value of the test fluid.
2.2. The orthogonal design for water simulation process
The former researches revealed that the main factors of RID pro-
cess were the rotational speed of impeller; the gas feed rate and the
diameter of impeller [4–7]. In order to try to obtain the optimum
parameters of the RID process, an orthogonal array was used to
design an experimental matrix in the research. The advantage of
the design is that the influence of every factor on the test results
can be defined by a relatively small number of experimental runs
[8,9]. The encode table L9 (3)4 was adopted in this experiment.

2.1. Experimental facilities 2.3. The orthogonal regression test for water simulation process

A water simulation device jointly developed by Henan Polytech-
nic University and Harbin Institute of Technology was used in the
experiment. It consists of operation, rotating and elevating systems.
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: petermicn@yahoo.com.cn (G. Mi).
The degassing efficiency of Al alloy can be measured by the pro-
cessing time. The longer the processing time is, the longer the Al
melt exposed to air will be. As a result, the Al melt is easily oxi-
dized and absorbs gas. The degassing efficiency is restricted by the
interaction between various influencing factors. If we can model
the relationship between the processing time and other influencing
factors properly, we can define the crucial factors of the degassing

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2008.07.004
196 G. Mi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 499 (2009) 195–199

Table 1
Factor level of quadric regression

Factors Rotational speed (rpm/min) Gas feed rate (dm3 /min)

Encoding record x1 x2
Datum level (0) 320 1.25
Limit of variation 130 0.75
Upper level (1) 450 2.0
Lower level (−1) 190 0.5

one influencing factor can be defined, and the interaction of two

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental facility. (1) Impeller (2) solution (3)
engine (4) control section and (5) air collector.
efficiency. As a result the optimum technological parameters can
be obtained so as to guide the practical production.
If the relationship between the processing time and influencing
factors was described as follows:
factors on the processing time can be confirmed, too. By analyzing
the equation above, the processing time can be forecasted and the
technological parameters can be optimized.
By analyzing the result of orthogonal test it was found that the
main factors of RID efficiency were rotational speed of impeller and
gas feed rate when other technological parameters were confirmed.
As a result, it needed to define the quadric regressive relationship
between gas feed rate and rotational speed of impeller. According to
the former experiences the rotational speed and gas feed rate varied
within ranges (190 450 rpm/min) and (0.5 2.0 dm3 /min). The coded
equations of rotational speed and gas feed rate are

 = f (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) (1) 2(v − 450)

X1 = +1 (4)
450 − 190
In order to obtain the quantitative relational expression, it tends to
carry out a lot of tests. By using the secondary orthogonal regression 2(q − 2.0)
X2 = +1 (5)
experimental method, the number of tests can be decreased and the 2.0 − 0.5
precision can be evidently improved [10]. According to Eq. (1) the Eq. (4) reveals that when the rotational speed is 450, 320 and
secondary polynomial was established, as follows: 190 rpm/min, x1 = +1, 0, −1, respectively. Eq. (5) indicates when the
gas feed is 2.0, 1.25 and 0.5 dm3 /min, x2 = +1, 0, −1, respectively.

p

p

p

 = ˇ0 X0 + ˇi Xi + ˇij Xi Xj + ˇii Xi2 + ε (2) Table 1 gives the encode table for the factor-level of quadric regres-
sion.
i=1 i<j i=1
Because the interaction between the rotational speed and gas
where X0 = 1, ˇ0 , ˇi , ˇij , ˇii are the coefficients of the constant feed rate, the values of x1 and x2 were written as a matrix. For
term, first-degree term and the quadratic term; ε is the error term. estimating the value of constant term, a column of x0 was set as
According to the multiple linear regression method and values of the first column of the matrix and the values of it were all set as
various influencing factors was substitute into, the coefficients of 1.
every terms were got and the responsive equation was obtained,
2.4. Test procedure

p
 
p

y = b0 + bi Xi + bij Xi Xj + bii Xi2 (3)

i=1 i<j i=1
where y is the processing time, Xi are influencing factors (i = 1, 2,
3 . . ., n). The b0 , bi , bij , bii are regression coefficients, which are
the estimated values of the theoretical coefficients ˇ0 , ˇi , ˇij and
ˇii . Based on Eq. (3), the relationship between processing time and
The distance between the impeller and bottom of container was
confirmed as 45 mm then the distilled water was filled in the con-
tainer and NaOH was dissolved in the water. Then the CO2 was
injected into the aqueous solution, meanwhile the stopwatch was
used to record the time. PH paper was used to test the variation of
the pH value in the solution, when it became achromatism (the pH

Fig. 2. The shape and dimensions of impeller.

 G. Mi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 499 (2009) 195–199 197

Table 2 Table 4
Experimental data Analysis of variance of processing time

Diameter of Rotational speed (rpm/min) Gas feed rate Origin of Quadratic sum Degree of freedom Mean sum of FRatio
impeller (mm) (dm3 /min) variation square

0.5 Amounts SA = 884.28 9−1=8

0.10
0 0 190 280 350 400 450 1.0 Regression SReg = 825.06 P=5 FReg = 165.01 8.36 > F(5 3)
1.5 Residual SRes = 59.22 N−P−1=3 FRes = 19.74
0.5
5 0 190 280 350 400 450 1.0
1.5 Enlarging both the sides of the equation,
0.5
x3 = 3(x12 − 2/3) (8)
8 0 190 280 350 400 450 1.0
1.5
x4 = 3(x22 − 2/3) (9)
0.5
11 0 190 280 350 400 450 1.0 Furthermore, the interaction between the rotational speed and gas
1.5 feed rate can be expressed as follows:

x5 = x1 x2 (10)
Table 3
Result of orthogonal regression water simulation Some typical states of water simulation according to nine groups
Number Coefficients of independent variable Test result y (s)
of quadric regression test are shown in Fig. 3.

x0 x1 x2 x3 x4 x5
3.2. Establishment of the regression equation
1 1 −1 −1 1 1 1 37 9
2 1 0 −1 −2 1 0 17 55
3 1 1 −1 1 1 −1 17 0
The regression coefficients can be obtained as follows:If
4 1 −1 0 1 −2 0 9 50
5 1 0 0 −2 −2 0 8 17 
9

6 1 1 0 1 −2 0 5 34 Bj = xij yi (11)

7 1 −1 1 1 1 −1 7 26 i=1
8 1 0 1 −2 1 0 5 24
9 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 40 
9

dj = xij2 (j = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) (12)
i=1
value reached to 7) the test was completed. For ensuring the con-
the computational express of regression coefficient is
dition of each tests was identical, the amount of water was fixed
to be 9 dm3 and the NaOH reagent used in the tests was 10 g each Bj
time. The experimental data are listed in Table 2. bj = (13)
dj

The quadric regression equation can be obtained by substituting

3. Result and discussion
the regression coefficients into Eq. (3),
3.1. Analysis of orthogonal regression test result y = b0 + b1 x1 + b2 x2 + b3 x3 + b4 x4 + b5 x5 (14)

Table 3 gives the results of orthogonal regression water simula- After substituting the test data, the final quadric regression equa-
tion. tion can be obtained
In order to eliminate the correlation between x0 and xi2 , the
matrix was translated to diagonal matrix by substituting the xi2 by y = 12.47 − 4.69x1 − 9.62x2 + 0.97x3 + 2.29x4 + 4.09x5 (15)
x3 and x4 , as follows: In the regression orthogonal test, the regression coefficients are
1 dissociated to each other and the absolute value of the coefficients
x3 = x12 − [(−1)2 + 02 + · · · + 12] (6) reflected the effect of influencing factor on the test result. From the
9
equation above it could be seen that the influence of gas feed rate
x4 = x22 − 2/3 (7) is larger than that of rotational speed.

Fig. 3. State diagrams of quadric regression water simulation.

198 G. Mi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 499 (2009) 195–199

Fig. 4. Al alloy samples purified by RID (a) no degassing (b) after degassing for 5 min (c) after degassing for 10 min and (d) after degassing for 20 min.

3.3. The statistical analysis of regression equation The analysis of variance indicates that the regression equation is
significant at the level of ˛ = x and the experimental data was con-
The liner relationship of processing time and technological forming to the quadratic models adopted in the test basically.
parameters could not be defined simply, so it should accept the Expanding Eq. (20)
statistical analysis. The regression equation Eq. (14) was submitted
to a variance analysis; meanwhile, the significance of regression t = 5.95 − 4.69x1 − 9.26x2 + 2.91x12 + 6.87x22 + 4.09x1 x2 (21)
equation was tested, as shown in Table 4. Let
The variables in Table 4 have relationships as follows.
If the partial regression coefficient is ∂t ∂t
=0 =0
∂x1 ∂x2
Bi2
Qj = (16) namely
dj

The total sum of squares is: −0.49 + 5.82x1 + 4.09x2 = 0
−9.26 + 13.74x2 + 4.09x1 = 0

9

SA = yi2 − 1/9 yi2 (17) get

i=1
x1 = 0.42
The regression sum of squares equals to the sum of each partial x2 = 0.55
regression coefficient:
The optimum processing parameters can be obtained from Eqs. (4)
SReg = Q1 + · · · + Q5 (18) and (5), namely v = 374 rpm/min, q = 1.8 dm3 /min.
Then the residual sum of squares is:
3.4. Smelting trial
SRes = SA − SReg (19)
The dates of Al alloy purified by RID and optimized parameters
By calculation and regression analysis the quadratic regression
above are listed in Table 5. And the effect of RID on improving the
equation of gas feed rate, rotational speed and processing time, as
quality of Al alloy is strongly confirmed by Fig. 4.
follows:

t = 12.47 − 4.69x1 − 9.26x2 + 0.97[3(x12 − 2/3)] 4. Conclusion

+2.29[3(x22 − 2/3)] + 4.09x1 x2 (20)
The optimum technological parameters of the RID process were
obtained, namely the rotational speed of impeller v = 374 rpm/min
Table 5 and the gas feed rate q = 1.8 dm3 /min.
The dates of Al alloy purified by RID

Degassing method Degasifying Before After Acknowledgement

agent degassing/cm3 /100 g degassing/cm3 /100 g

Rotating impeller Ar 0.18 0.06 The present work is funded by the Innovation Fund for Outstand-
degassing ing Scholar of Henan Province (no. 0621000700)
 G. Mi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 499 (2009) 195–199 199

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