Reviews on Advanced Materials Science 2021; 60: 946–955
Research Article
Peng Yin, Chunguang Xu, Qinxue Pan*, Canzhi Guo, and Xiaowei Jiang
Effect of ultrasonic field on the microstructure
and mechanical properties of sand-casting
AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy
https://doi.org/10.1515/rams-2021-0061
received June 27, 2021; accepted August 20, 2021
Abstract: The injection of ultrasonic wave into a melt
during casting can refine grain size, improve grain distri-
bution, and thereby enhance casting performance. The
available studies on ultrasonic-assisted casting are mostly
about inserting a transducer directly into the melt. Such a
method is not suitable for sand casting. Therefore, the
study of ultrasonic sand casting by indirectly injecting
ultrasonic waves into an aluminum alloy melt through a
sand mold was proposed and carried out in this study. The
effects of ultrasonic waves of different powers at different
solidification stages on the microstructure and mechanical
properties of the melt were studied. Compared to conven-
tional sand casting, the samples prepared by ultrasonic
sand casting have finer grains and better grain distribu-
tion, as well as higher mechanical properties. Moreover,
the sample’s performance improves to different levels
when the same ultrasonic wave is injected at different
periods, when compared to the injection of ultrasonic
waves with different powers in the same period.
Keywords: ultrasonic wave, sand casting, aluminum alloy,
microstructure, mechanical properties

* Corresponding author: Qinxue Pan, Key Laboratory of
Fundamental Science for Advanced Machining, Beijing Institute of
Technology, Beijing 100081, China, e-mail: panqx@bit.edu.cn,
tel: +86-010-68912714
Peng Yin, Chunguang Xu, Xiaowei Jiang: Key Laboratory of
Fundamental Science for Advanced Machining, Beijing Institute of
Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Canzhi Guo: Institute of Intelligent Flexible Mechatronics, Jiangsu
University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China
Open Access. © 2021 Peng Yin et al., published by De Gruyter.
License.
1 Introduction
AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy has good mechanical properties, casting
performance, and thermal and electrical conductivity,
which make it widely used in weaponry, aerospace, and
other fields. In industrial production, AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy
is usually made into mechanical components by sand
casting. However, the plant environment and sand mold
can easily cause uneven distribution of the temperature
field and flow field during the melt solidification, resulting
in a large grain size, uneven grain distribution, low macro-
scopic mechanical performance, high residual stress, and
other casting defects. These defects directly affect the sub-
sequent product remanufacturing.
Therefore, the preparation of alloy products with
good performance and high quality has become an impor-
tant research topic around the world. With the continuous
development of modern aluminum alloy casting tech-
nology it has been found that ultrasonic waves can change
the grain distribution and refine the grains [1–7]. However,
no study was found on ultrasonic sand casting. There
are some similar but not identical contents in the open
literature.
Most Chinese and foreign scholars directly inserted
ultrasonic transducer or ultrasonic amplitude transformer
into the aluminum alloy melt to study the norms for
improving the mechanical properties and microstructure
of castings by using ultrasonic waves. Shi et al. [8], Yao
et al. [9], Zhao [10], Zhai and Qi [11], and Zhang and Zhai
[12] directly inserted the titanium alloy amplitude trans-
former of an ultrasonic vibrator into the aluminum alloy
melt for ultrasonic treatment. It was found that the ingots
cast by ultrasonic waves had finer grains and better
mechanical performance. Cao et al. [13] and Wang et al.
[14] directly inserted an ultrasonic vibrator into the melt to
prepare nanoparticle-reinforced aluminum alloy. Under the
ultrasonic cavitation effect, the nanoparticles were uni-
formly dispersed in the alloy melt, and the mechanical
properties of the castings significantly improved. Li et al.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
 Effect of ultrasonic field on sand-casting AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy  947

[15–17] inserted an ultrasonic vibrator into the aluminum obtained samples were analyzed in this study. According
alloy melt, and applied ultrasonic wave after the melt began to the experimental results, the optimal ultrasonic appli-
to crystallize. They analyzed the heat transfer in the solidi- cation time and power was proposed to guide industrial
fication process and the mechanism of microstructural production.
improvement. They believed that the grain refinement was
mainly due to the ultrasonic cavitation effect and the ultra-
sonic streaming effect.
In addition, most reported studies explain how the 2 Materials and methods
ultrasonic wave acts on the metal melt. Lebon et al. [18]
systematically studied the effect of the ultrasonic wave on Figure 1 shows the ultrasonic sand-casting system used
aluminum melt, and proposed the ultrasonic capillary in the experiment and the sample cast in the experiment.
effect. They believed that the ultrasonic cavitation inten- The ultrasonic generator has a maximum output power of
sity was mainly governed by the ultrasonic source dis- 3,000 W and an output frequency range of 0–30 kHz. The
tance, melt temperature, and input power. ultrasonic transducer is a PZT4 piezoelectric ceramic
The influence of the number of ultrasonic transduc- transducer with a diameter of 70 mm and a resonant fre-
ers on the solidification process of the metal melt, quency of 14.85 kHz. The system also includes a resin
excluding the symmetrical incidence of the transducers sand mold and a fixture made of Q345 steel. The trans-
into the melt, has also been studied. Liu et al. [19] and mitting end of the ultrasonic transducer is coated with
Yang et al. [20] inserted multiple ultrasonic vibrators into high-temperature couplant and is closely attached to the
the 2,219 aluminum alloy melt. The microstructure and fixture through studs. The contact surface between the
mechanical properties of the obtained large-size alu- fixture and the sand mold is also coated with the high-
minum ingots improved. Due to the large size of the alu- temperature couplant. The two parts of the fixture are
minum ingots, the mechanical properties of the different closely attached to the sand mold through bolting, and
areas under ultrasonic treatment improved to different ultrasonic injection in bilateral symmetry is adopted.
levels, demonstrating that the number of ultrasonic trans- The experimental material is industrial AlSi7Mg0.3
ducers had a direct effect on the improvement of alu- alloy, whose composition and element contents are clearly
minum alloy performance. defined in GB/T 1173-2013, as shown in Table 1. After being
The influence of ultrasonic power on casting proper- melted to 750℃ and degassed, the alloy was poured into
ties has also been frequently studied, but the melt tem- the resin sand mold.
perature measured during ultrasonic wave application
was not analyzed in detail in those studies. Yan et al.
[21] studied the effect of pulsed ultrasound with different
powers on the microstructure of the ZL205A alloy after
120 s. They found that with the increase of the pulsed
ultrasound power and vibration application time, the
alloy microstructure became finer and rounder. Liu et al.
[22] attached an ultrasonic amplitude transformer on the
side of a crucible and injected ultrasonic waves into the
aluminum alloy melt. They discussed the microstructure of
the Al–Si alloy under different ultrasonic powers. It was
found that the mechanical properties of the Al–Si alloy
improved with the increase of power.
In the above studies, the ways in which the ultrasonic
transducers came into contact with the aluminum alloy
melt were not suitable for sand casting. In addition, the
improvement of casting performance by ultrasonic power
and ultrasonic application time was not systematically
studied. Therefore, ultrasonic waves with different powers
were applied to the AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy melt at different solid-
ification stages in the sand-casting process, and the micro-
structural characteristics and mechanical properties of the Figure 1: Ultrasonic sand casting system and samples.
948  Peng Yin et al.

Table 1: Main chemical composition (% by mass)

Si Fe Mn Mg Cu Ti Zn Al

6.5–7.5 0–0.2 ≤0.1 0.25–0.45 ≤0.1 0.08–0.2 ≤0.1 Bal.

In order to study the effects of ultrasonic waves with

different powers at different solidification stages on the
microstructure and properties of AlSi7Mg0.3, five groups
of experiments were designed. The first group was a con-
trol experiment, without ultrasonic injection, from the
second group to the fifth group, and the solution tem-
peratures were 650–620°C, 620–590°C, 590–560°C, and
560–530°C. According to the power of the injected ultra-
sonic wave, the experiment was divided into three states:
U0 – injecting no ultrasonic wave; U1 – injecting an ultra-
sonic wave with frequency of 14.85 kHz and power of Figure 3: EDS analysis for samples.
150 W; and U2 – injecting an ultrasonic wave with fre-
quency of 14.85 kHz and power of 300 W.
After complete solidification, the sample was cooled and were metallographically analyzed with an Olympus
to room temperature. According to DIN 50125, the tensile GX51 metallographic microscope.
specimens with mechanical properties in sheet form
were cut out. Their size is shown in Figure 2. A tensile
test was carried out by a MTS(SANS) SHT4305 electro-
hydraulic servo test machine under microcomputer con- 3 Results and analysis
trol in accordance with ISO 6892-1. The specimen spacing
was set as 50 mm, and the operational speed of the test By analyzing the spectral peaks shown in Figure 3 and
machine was 5 mm·min−1. A TIME GROUP TH600 Brinell the content of each element in Table 2, it can be seen that
tester was used to measure the hardness on both ends the composition and element contents of AlSi7Mg0.3
and at three middle points of the specimens according to alloy in conventional casting are basically the same as
ISO 6506-1. The diameter of the ball indenter was 10 mm, those in ultrasonic casting and meet the requirements of
the test force was 4,903 kN, and the test force duration GB/T 1173-2013. However, as the test area of the EDS
was 15 s. Metallographic specimens were cut from the energy spectrum is too small to be accurately positioned
center of the specimen ribs. The actual chemical compo- and detected, the results of the energy spectrum analysis
sition of all the alloy specimens was detected by the can only serve as a reference indicating the approximate
EDS function of a Quanta FEG 450 scanning electron agreement among the element contents of various sam-
microscope (SEM), and the fracture with mechanical pro- ples. However, it can be confirmed that the ultrasonic
perties was observed by SEM scanning. The specimens field will not change the composition of the casting alloy
were then ground, polished, and etched with reagents, and the content of each element.

14 19

5
18 18
50

55

100

Figure 2: Tensile specimens with mechanical properties.

 Effect of ultrasonic field on sand-casting AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy  949

Table 2: EDS analyzing results of samples (wt%)

Sample nos Si Fe Mn Mg Cu Ti Zn Al

1 U0 7.235 0.120 0.005 0.392 0.003 0.154 0.005 92.09

2 U1 7.172 0.108 0.005 0.363 0.003 0.153 0.005 92.19
U2 7.397 0.118 0.005 0.393 0.004 0.146 0.005 91.93
3 U1 7.159 0.132 0.005 0.371 0.005 0.133 0.005 92.19
U2 7.249 0.138 0.005 0.366 0.026 0.135 0.021 92.06
4 U1 7.165 0.113 0.005 0.332 0.021 0.136 0.006 92.22
U2 7.270 0.135 0.005 0.353 0.025 0.133 0.002 92.06
5 U1 7.330 0.113 0.005 0.351 0.041 0.140 0.002 92.00
U2 7.017 0.121 0.005 0.346 0.039 0.147 0.005 92.32

The metallographic structures of all the samples in
the same area are shown in Figure 4(a)–(i). It can be seen
from Figure 4(a) that the original dendritic crystal of
the conventional casting sample is not fully fragmented,
has a large grain size, and a strong directivity of grain
distribution. In contrast, the ultrasonic casting sample
has a smaller grain size and better grain distribution.
Figure 4(b)–(e) shows that at liquid temperature, the
α solid solution of the ultrasonic casting sample has
the best distribution state where the dendritic crystal is
alternately woven and the grains are finer with short
knobbles and are uniformly distributed. However, in
Figure 4(f)–(i), the grains obtained by injecting the ultra-
sound into a solid–liquid mixture or a solid are not as
fine as those in a liquid. In addition, the α solid solution
is not completely fragmented, is showing a bough shape,
a fishbone-like grain growth in some areas, and a strong
distribution directivity. This is mainly caused by the
“cavitation effect” [23–25] and “acoustic streaming effect”
[26,27] of the ultrasonic wave in the AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy melt.
In terms of cavitation effect, the formation of a cavi-
tation bubble will absorb a lot of heat from the nearby
melt, directly leading to faster crystal formation. However,
the cavitation bubble will burst very soon to produce

Figure 4: Alloy microstructures under different conditions: (a) Group 1, U0; (b) Group 2, U1; (c) Group 2, U2; (d) Group 3, U1; (e) Group 3, U2;
(f) Group 4, U1; (g) Group 4, U2; (h) Group 5, U1; and (i) Group 5, U2.
950  Peng Yin et al.
energy shockwaves, which will quickly crush the grains
that are just formed. After being agitated and dispersed by
ultrasonic streaming, these fine broken grains are distrib-
uted evenly into the melt. The “cavitation effect” and
“acoustic streaming effect” are proportional to the ultra-
sonic power. The acoustic streaming effect will increase
with ultrasonic power [28–30].
In a liquid alloy, as the ultrasonic transducers are sym-
metrically side-mounted, high-power ultrasound streaming
can quickly gather the grains from different areas into larger
grains, which, in turn, are crushed by ultrasonic cavitation
bubbles. As the high-energy acoustic flow is dispersed in
the liquid alloy melt, grains with a large size and good
distribution will be formed. At the beginning and end of
the solidification process, the melt is a solid–liquid mixture
[21,31]. As the temperature in the plant environment drops
rapidly, the melt viscosity will increase quickly and the
cavitation effect and acoustic streaming effect of the ultra-
sound will gradually decline. At this time, the high-power
ultrasound can also produce a certain number of cavita-
tion bubbles, and the energy of the high-power acoustic
streaming can offset the resistance to move the grains by
some distance. When the grains are close to each other,
the acoustic stream will gather the grains together, so that
the grains will grow. When the melt viscosity is so large
that the low ultrasonic energy cannot offset the resistance,
the stirring action of the acoustic flow will disappear, and
the cavitation bubbles will no longer occur. When the melt
is solidified, the ultrasonic cavitation effect will no longer
exist. In this case, acoustic streaming can rely only on
its effect on alloy heat transfer to keep the solidification
temperature in a good condition, thus influencing the
mechanical properties of the casting [32,33].
The tensile curves of the samples in different states at
room temperature are shown in Figure 5(a)–(f). It can be
seen from Figure 5(a)–(b) that the mechanical properties
of the ultrasonic casting samples in the U1 and U2 states
are significantly better than those of a conventional
casting sample in the U0 state. Under the same casting
and experimental conditions, the difference in the mechan-
ical properties of the samples is entirely due to a series
of ultrasonic effects, but also satisfies the Hall–Petch rela-
tion. The finer the grains, the better the mechanical prop-
erties of the casting. The samples in Groups 4 and 5 also
have better mechanical properties because the ultrasonic
streaming improves the temperature environment for metal
cooling after solidification, so that a large temperature gra-
dient is not generated during the casting cooling and the
generated thermal residual stress can be reduced. The tensile
curves in the U1 and U2 states are shown in Figure 5(c)–(f). It
can be seen that the sample cast by injecting low-power
ultrasound into the liquid melt during the early crystalliza-
tion stage has better mechanical properties. However, the
sample cast by injecting high-power ultrasound into the soli-
dified melt during the late crystallization stage has the best
mechanical properties.
The tensile strength of each tensile sample is shown
in Figure 6. It can be seen that when U1 ultrasound is
applied, the tensile strength of the tensile samples in
Groups 2 and 3 is the largest, about 45% higher than in
the U0 state. When U2 ultrasound is applied, the tensile
strength of the samples in Groups 4 and 5 is increased by
about 33%.
After the tensile samples were tensioned to fracture,
the fracture of each sample was observed and analyzed
by SEM. The fracture microstructures of all the samples are
shown in Figure 7(a)–(i). It can be seen from Figure 7(a)
that the fracture of a conventional casting sample is
mainly a quasi-cleavage fracture with many steps and a
large area, indicating that such a sample has large brittle-
ness and poor toughness [34,35]. Figure 7(c) shows that
the fracture of an ultrasonic casting sample is a mixture
of quasi-cleavage steps and dimples. The quasi-cleavage
steps have a very small area, while the dimples are much
more than quasi-cleavage steps. The dimples are mostly
small, dense, and deep. But after injecting high-power
ultrasound into the liquid melt, many large quasi-cleavage
steps will also occur on the casting fracture, possibly
because the cavitation effect and acoustic streaming effect
of the high-power ultrasound loaded on both sides result
in serious grain crushing and large motion amplitude,
which lead to the segregation of the eutectic silicon in
some areas and thus affect the sample’s toughness.
According to the data in Figure 8, the conventional
casting sample has the lowest elongation, followed by the
sample cast by injecting high-power ultrasound into the
liquid melt. The third sample group cast by injecting
high-power ultrasound has the best elongation, which
is 3.8% higher than that of the conventional casting
sample. The elongation of the other groups has also
been improved. The fracture appearance in Figure 7 can
be well explained by the mechanical property data in
Figure 8.
The Brinell hardness states of samples under dif-
ferent conditions are shown in Figure 9. It can be seen
that the Brinell hardness values of the samples cast under
different conditions are different, and that the average
Brinell hardness of the conventional casting samples
made without ultrasound is 56.80 HBW. As the ultrasonic
wave is injected into the solidification process, the mate-
rial hardness will change. The third group of samples in
the U1 state have the highest hardness, with the average
 Effect of ultrasonic field on sand-casting AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy  951

Figure 5: Tensile curves: (a) U0 and U1; (b) U0 and U2; (c) Group 2, U1 and U2; (d) Group 3, U1 and U2; (e) Group 4, U1 and U2; and (f) Group 5, U1
and U2.
952  Peng Yin et al.

Figure 6: Comparison of the tensile strengths of the casting samples Figure 8: Comparison of the elongations of the casting samples in
in different states. different states.

Figure 7: Appearance of tensile sample fracture: (a) Group 1, U0; (b) Group 2, U1; (c) Group 2, U2; (d) Group 3, U1; (e) Group 3, U2; (f) Group 4,
U1; (g) Group 4, U2; (h) Group 5, U1; and (i) Group 5, U2.
 Effect of ultrasonic field on sand-casting AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy
Figure 9: Comparison of the Brinell hardness values of the casting
samples in different states.
Brinell hardness of 61.03 HBW. It can also be found that
the hardness of the sample cast by injecting ultrasound
into the liquid alloy is higher than that of the conven-
tional casting sample. However, the hardness of the
sample cast by injecting ultrasound into the alloy that
is initially or completely solidified is almost the same
as that of the conventional casting sample. The hardness
of the U1 sample is even lower than that of conventional
casting. This phenomenon can be explained by the degree
of grain homogenization, that is, smaller grains have a
better distribution state and a stronger ability to resist
deformation. So the material shows higher hardness
macroscopically [36].
4 Conclusion
The injection of ultrasound into the solidification process
of AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy during sand-casting will not change
the elemental composition and contents of the alloy, but
will change the size and distribution of the grains in
the casting sample and the mechanical properties of the
sample. The higher the power applied to the ultrasonic
transducer, the greater the energy of the generated ultra-
sonic waves, but the ultrasonic power injected in the
sand casting process is not as higher as better. The appli-
cation of different ultrasonic powers at different stages
will have different effects on the grain state and mechan-
ical properties of the samples.
(1) When the melt is in liquid state and at the initial
crystallization stage, the injection of a low-power
 953
ultrasonic wave can optimize grain refinement and
distribution. The grain state of high-power ultrasonic
casting at this stage is not as good as that of low-
power ultrasonic casting, but is better than any of
the ultrasonic castings at other stages. At the late
solidification stage, the injection of ultrasonic wave
can support grain growth, but can still play a role in
the improvement of grain distribution. After the melt
is completely solidified, the injection of ultrasonic
wave has little effect on the grain state.
(2) Compared to conventional casting, the tensile strength
and elongation of ultrasonic casting have greatly
improved. When the melt is in liquid state or at the
initial solidification stage, the tensile strength of
the low-power ultrasonic casting and the elongation
of high-power ultrasonic casting have the biggest
increase. When the melt is in the late or final solidifi-
cation stage, the mechanical properties of the ultra-
sonic casting are just the other way around, that is,
the high-power ultrasonic casting has higher tensile
strength but lower elongation.
(3) Ultrasonic sand casting has only a minor (but larger
than conventional casting) effect on casting hard-
ness. Casting hardness can be improved by the injec-
tion of ultrasonic wave into the melt in the liquid
state or at the initial solidification stage, but can hardly
be improved by the injection of ultrasonic wave into the
melt at the late or final solidification stage.
Based on the above conclusions, it is found that the
ultrasonic transducer can inject ultrasonic waves into the
alloy melt through a sand mold. Ultrasonic waves (whose
power should not be too high) can be applied to the melt
in the liquid state and at the early crystallization stage in
order to obtain sand castings with good mechanical prop-
erties and microstructure.
Acknowledgements: We are very grateful to Inner Mongolia
First Machinery Group Co., Ltd. for providing the experi-
mental materials.
Funding information: This research was funded by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. U1737203).
Author contributions: Peng Yin: Writing – original draft,
Methodology, Formal Analysis; Chunguang Xu: Writing –
review & editing, Project administration, Methodology;
Qinxue Pan: Visualization, Project administration, Methodo-
logy; Canzhi Guo: Grammar review, Methodology; Xiaowei
Jiang: Grammar review.
954  Peng Yin et al.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no
known competing financial interests or personal relation-
ships that could have appeared to influence the work
reported in this paper.
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