Supersonic atomizer with double Laval structures and application method thereof
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the technical field of metal powder preparation by gas atomization, and relates to a supersonic atomizer with a double Laval structure and a use method thereof.
Background
The gas atomization technique is one of the main methods for producing high-performance metal powder, and the principle is mainly based on the gas jet principle. In the gas atomization process, a compressed gas is used to pass through a fine nozzle to break a liquid metal stream into fine particles under the impact of a high velocity gas stream. These particles are suspended in air and form a mist, which can then be collected and processed to obtain the desired powder. The powder prepared by gas atomization has the advantages of good sphericity, controllable particle size distribution and the like. The gas atomization nozzle is a core part in the gas atomization technology, and the structure of the nozzle determines the performance and the preparation efficiency of the metal powder. With the application of additive manufacturing technology in the fields of aerospace, national defense and military industry and the like, the development trend of the current aerosolization powder manufacturing technology has been developed, wherein the metal powder has a fine particle size (particle size is less than 53 mu m), high spherical preparation rate and low powder manufacturing cost. The main technical characteristics of the current atomizing nozzle are annular ring type and annular slot type, gas is converged at one place at a certain angle after passing through a gas outlet, and the metal liquid cracking and atomizing process is carried out at the gas junction. In order to obtain high-speed gas flow for crushing liquid metal flow, a contraction-expansion-contraction Laval nozzle is required to obtain supersonic gas flow, so that atomization efficiency is improved, and powder with finer particle size is prepared.
However, when the existing atomizing nozzle is used for gas atomization, the molten metal flow directly passes through the diversion channel, so that the internal ambient temperature of the atomizing nozzle is too high, and the gas flow speed is slowed down and the rupture and atomization result is adversely affected due to the too high temperature. And the air flow outlets of the traditional air atomization powder making technology are cylindrical holes, after the liquid metal flows out of the guide pipe, the high-pressure air firstly breaks the metal liquid column body to break the surface of the liquid metal flow into fine particles, and the particles are subjected to secondary breaking under the action of the high-pressure air in the falling process to break the liquid particles into fine powder with particle size. The main problems of the conventional circular holes in the gas atomization field are that 1. The gas sprayed from the circular holes is unevenly distributed in space, the gas rate is greatly attenuated, which may cause inconsistent gas flow action of the metal liquid flow in the crushing process, and thus uneven particle size distribution of the metal powder obtained after crushing. 2. When the circular hole outlet ejects gas, vortex and turbulence phenomena can be generated, so that the energy consumption is increased, the effective utilization rate of energy is reduced, and the crushing effect can be influenced. 3. The interaction of the gas with the metal stream is insufficient, thereby increasing the probability of satellite sphere formation and reducing the quality of the powder.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to solve the technical problems of high gas rate attenuation, high working temperature and high energy loss of an atomization nozzle in the prior art, and provides a supersonic atomizer with a double Laval structure and a use method thereof.
In order to achieve the above purpose, the invention is realized by adopting the following technical scheme:
the invention discloses a supersonic atomizer with a double Laval structure, which comprises an air atomizing nozzle with a cylindrical structure, wherein a cooling device is arranged on the periphery of the air atomizing nozzle, a through hole is formed in the center of the air atomizing nozzle, a liquid guide pipe is sleeved in the through hole and used for allowing metal melt to flow through, a circle of air accommodating cavity is formed in the air atomizing nozzle and surrounds the through hole, the air accommodating cavity is connected with an air inlet pipe, one end, close to the air atomizing nozzle, of the air inlet pipe is of the Laval structure, a plurality of air flow channels are formed in the bottom of the air accommodating cavity and surround the outlet of the liquid guide pipe, and the air flow channels are of the Laval structure.
The further improvement is that:
The cooling device is a circulating water cooling device sleeved on the periphery of the gas atomization nozzle, the circulating water cooling device is of a circular cavity structure, and the circulating water cooling device is connected with a water delivery pipe and a water discharge pipe.
The circulating water cooling device is provided with an arc-shaped groove for accommodating the air inlet pipe, and the water delivery pipe and the water discharge pipe are symmetrically arranged relative to the air inlet pipe.
The liquid guide tube is of a tubular structure and is made of ceramic materials, and a metal melt accommodating cavity with the outer diameter being larger than the inner diameter of the through hole is arranged at the upper part of the liquid guide tube.
The inside of the liquid guide tube is provided with a metal melt flow guide cavity which is an expanded spiral hole, the sections of an inlet and an outlet of the metal melt flow guide cavity are both gear-shaped, and the deflection angle between the two sections is 18-36 degrees.
The bottom of the gas accommodating cavity is in a conical surface structure around the outlet of the liquid guide pipe, the inside of the gas accommodating cavity is in a shrinkage reducing structure from one liquid inlet end to one liquid outlet end, the side surface of the upper wall surface of the gas accommodating cavity is in an arc curve design, the arc radius is 10-12 mm, the side surface of the lower wall surface is in an inward inclined straight line design, and the included angle between the side surface and a horizontal line is 4-8 degrees.
The number of the air flow channels is 24-48.
The airflow channel comprises a throat part of the prismatic structure and an expansion section of the prismatic structure, wherein the ratio of the length of the throat part to the length of the expansion section is 1:1-1:2, and the ratio of the sectional area of the throat part to the area of the bottom surface of the expansion section is 1:1-1:3.
The ratio of the axial length of the contraction section of the Laval structure part on the air inlet pipe to the width of the inlet of the contraction section is 1:1-3:1, the ratio of the width of the inlet of the contraction section to the width of the throat is 1:1-5:1, and the ratio of the width of the outlet of the expansion section to the width of the throat is 1:1-3:1.
In a second aspect, the invention discloses a method for using the supersonic atomizer, which comprises the following steps:
Firstly, filling the liquid guide tube into a through hole of an aerosolization nozzle, and then installing a cooling device for the aerosolization nozzle;
Connecting the air inlet pipe with an external air bottle, connecting the cooling device with an external water tank and starting cooling water circulation;
and thirdly, dripping the metal melt into the liquid guide pipe, enabling the metal melt to flow out along the liquid guide pipe, and enabling the flowing-out metal melt to be impacted and broken into fine molten drops at the bottom end of the gas atomization nozzle by a supersonic gas flow field flowing out of the gas flow channel and be gradually solidified into metal powder.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects:
the invention discloses a supersonic atomizer with a double Laval structure, which can stably convey supersonic airflow into a gas accommodating cavity by adopting an air inlet pipe and an airflow channel with the Laval structure. The design not only improves the stability and uniformity of the air flow, but also ensures that the air flow can keep low energy loss in the high-speed flowing process, thereby realizing efficient air flow utilization. Since the gas flow channel of the Laval structure has excellent hydrodynamic properties, it is possible to rapidly accelerate the gas to a supersonic state and to efficiently inject the gas into the gas accommodating chamber. The design obviously shortens the air charging time of the air cavity and improves the response speed and the working efficiency of the atomizer. By optimizing the design of the gas passages, the atomizer is able to more efficiently utilize the energy of the gas flow, reducing downtime due to gas flow instability or energy loss. Therefore, the working time of the atomizer is effectively prolonged, and the reliability and stability of the equipment are improved. The double Laval structure supersonic atomizer is suitable for atomizing all metal and alloy melts with melting points below 1600 ℃. The characteristic enables the atomizer to have wide applicability in the field of metal powder preparation, and can meet the atomization requirements of different metal materials. The metal powder prepared by the atomizer has the advantages of fine particle size, high sphericity, good fluidity and the like. The characteristics enable the prepared metal powder to have better performance and performance in the subsequent processing and application processes, and the quality and added value of the product are improved.
Further, the gas flow channels comprise throats of the prismatic structures and expansion sections of the prismatic structures, the range of high-speed gas flow is enlarged, the action area of the gas flow on the metal melt is wider, the space utilization rate is effectively improved through staggered arrangement of the gas channels, and the maximum aperture number is increased.
Further, the spiral metal melt flow guide cavity of the flow guide pipe can enable metal liquid to flow out in a divergent mode, the contact area between the metal melt and air flow is increased, the impact crushing effect of the air flow on the metal melt is better, energy loss is effectively reduced, and the collection rate of fine powder is improved.
Further, the influence of molten metal and high-speed air flow on the temperature of the atomizer in the atomization process is effectively reduced due to the arrangement of the circulating water cooling device, and the annular liquid accommodating cavity adjusts the flow of cooling water according to the working temperature, so that the stability and safety of the pulverizing process are ensured.
The invention discloses a use method of a supersonic atomizer with a double Laval structure, which has clear steps and simple and convenient operation, and can rapidly and efficiently prepare metal powder by gradually assembling and connecting equipment. Meanwhile, the method utilizes the high-efficiency crushing capability of supersonic airflow, and can crush the metal melt into fine molten drops in a short time, thereby greatly improving the production efficiency. The metal powder prepared by the method has the advantages of fine particle size, high sphericity, good fluidity and the like. These characteristics benefit from the strong impact and uniform dispersion of the supersonic gas flow on the metal melt, which makes the prepared metal powder excellent in morphology and performance, and provides high quality raw materials for subsequent processing and application. In the method, the gas atomization nozzle is cooled by installing the cooling device, so that the thermal damage of the high-temperature metal melt to the equipment is effectively prevented, and the service life of the equipment is prolonged. Meanwhile, the cooling device is connected with an external water tank, so that the cooling water circulation is ensured to be smoothly carried out, and the stability and the reliability of the equipment are further enhanced. The method is suitable for atomizing preparation of various metal and alloy melts, and parameters such as flow, pressure of an air inlet pipe, water temperature of a cooling device and the like can be adjusted according to requirements so as to adapt to the characteristics and requirements of different metal materials. The flexibility and applicability enable the method to have wide application prospects in the field of metal powder preparation.
Drawings
For a clearer description of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings that are needed in the embodiments will be briefly described below, it being understood that the following drawings only illustrate some embodiments of the present invention and should not be considered as limiting the scope, and other related drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a dual Laval structure supersonic atomizer of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of an air inlet pipe in a dual Laval structure supersonic atomizer of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the arrangement of gas flow passages in a dual Laval-structured supersonic atomizer according to the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the flow path structure in a dual Laval-structured supersonic atomizer according to the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a liquid guiding tube in a supersonic atomizer with a double Laval structure according to the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a top view of a dual Laval structure supersonic atomizer according to the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a connecting conduit of a dual Laval structure supersonic atomizer according to the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the gas flow of a dual Laval structure supersonic atomizer of the present invention;
Fig. 9 is an SEM photograph of 316L stainless steel powder in the example of the present invention.
The device comprises a 1-gas atomizing nozzle, a 2-gas accommodating cavity, a 3-gas flow channel, a 4-gas inlet pipe, a 5-nozzle center hole, a 6-circulating water cooling device, a 7-liquid accommodating cavity, an 8-water conveying pipe, a 9-water discharging pipe, a 10-arc-shaped groove, a 11-liquid guiding pipe, a 12-metal melt accommodating cavity and a 13-metal melt guiding cavity.
Detailed Description
For the purpose of making the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention more apparent, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are some embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments of the present invention. The components of the embodiments of the present invention generally described and illustrated in the figures herein may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations.
Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, as presented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, as claimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the invention. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.
It should be noted that like reference numerals and letters refer to like items in the following figures, and thus once an item is defined in one figure, no further definition or explanation thereof is necessary in the following figures.
In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, it should be noted that, if the terms "upper," "lower," "horizontal," "inner," and the like indicate an azimuth or a positional relationship based on the azimuth or the positional relationship shown in the drawings, or the azimuth or the positional relationship in which the inventive product is conventionally put in use, it is merely for convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, and does not indicate or imply that the apparatus or element to be referred to must have a specific azimuth, be configured and operated in a specific azimuth, and thus should not be construed as limiting the present invention. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like, are used merely to distinguish between descriptions and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.
Furthermore, the term "horizontal" if present does not mean that the component is required to be absolutely horizontal, but may be slightly inclined. As "horizontal" merely means that its direction is more horizontal than "vertical", and does not mean that the structure must be perfectly horizontal, but may be slightly inclined.
In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, it should also be noted that, unless explicitly stated or limited otherwise, the terms "disposed," "mounted," "connected," and "connected" should be interpreted broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected, mechanically connected, electrically connected, directly connected, indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, or communicating between two elements. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art according to the specific circumstances.
The invention is described in further detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures:
Referring to fig. 1 and 6, the embodiment of the invention discloses a supersonic atomizer with a double Laval structure, which comprises an aerosolization nozzle 1 with a cylindrical structure, wherein a cooling device is arranged at the periphery of the aerosolization nozzle 1, a through hole is arranged at the center of the aerosolization nozzle 1, a liquid guide pipe 11 is sleeved in the through hole for flowing metal melt, the upper part of the through hole is a cylindrical surface, and the lower part of the through hole is a conical surface. The diameter of the cylindrical surface is 8-12 mm as the diameter of the lower part of the liquid guiding tube, the diameter of the conical surface is gradually increased from inside to outside, the diameter of the inlet is 8-12 mm, and the diameter of the outlet is 12-16 mm. The gas atomizing nozzle 1 is internally provided with a circle of gas accommodating cavity 2 around the through hole, the gas accommodating cavity 2 is connected with a gas inlet pipe 4, one end of the gas inlet pipe 4, which is close to the gas atomizing nozzle 1, is of a Laval structure, the side surface of the upper wall surface of the gas accommodating cavity 2 is of an arc curve design, the radius of the arc is 10-12 mm, the side surface of the lower wall surface is of an inward inclined straight line design, and the included angle between the lower wall surface and a horizontal line is 4-8 degrees. The bottom of the gas accommodating cavity 2 is provided with a plurality of gas flow channels 3 around the outlet of the liquid guide tube 11, and the gas flow channels 3 are of Laval structure.
The bottom of the gas accommodating cavity 2 is in a conical surface structure around the outlet of the liquid guide tube 11, the inside of the gas accommodating cavity 2 is in a shrinkage reducing structure from a liquid inlet end to a liquid outlet end, the side surface of the upper wall surface of the gas accommodating cavity 2 is in an arc curve design, the arc radius is 10-12 mm, the side surface of the lower wall surface is in an inward inclined straight line design, and the included angle between the lower wall surface and a horizontal line is 4-8 degrees.
Referring to fig. 2, the air inlet of the air delivery pipe is in a Laval structure, the contraction section is designed by adopting a five-time curve method, the width of the throat is 3-6 mm, the expansion section is designed by adopting a Fulger method, and the air flow speed at the air inlet can reach supersonic speed according to the aerodynamic principle. In the Laval structure gas pipe, the ratio of the axial length L 1 of the contraction section to the inlet width a of the contraction section is 1:1-3:1, and the ratio of the inlet width a of the contraction section to the throat width b is 1:1-5:1. In the Laval structure gas transmission pipe, the ratio of the outlet width c to the throat width b of the expansion section is determined by Mach number Ma designed by a production scheme, and the ratio range is 1:1-3:1.
Referring to fig. 3 and 4, the number of the air flow channels 3 is 24-48. The Laval gas channel comprises a triangular prism-shaped throat and a triangular platform-shaped expansion section, wherein the ratio of the length a of the throat to the length b of the expansion section is 1:1-1:2, and the ratio of the sectional area S 1 of the throat to the area S 2 of the bottom surface of the expansion section is 1:1-1:3. The included angle formed by the central line of the expansion section of the gas channel and the central axis of the nozzle is 32-51 degrees. The range of high-speed air flow is enlarged, the action area of the air flow on the metal melt is wider, the space utilization rate is effectively improved by the staggered arrangement of the air channels, and the maximum aperture number is increased.
Referring to fig. 5, the liquid guide tube 11 is a tubular structure and is made of ceramic material, and a metal melt accommodating cavity 12 with an outer diameter larger than the inner diameter of the through hole is arranged at the upper part of the liquid guide tube 11. The inside of the liquid guide tube 11 is provided with a metal melt flow guide cavity 13, the metal melt flow guide cavity 13 is an expanded spiral hole, the sections of the inlet and the outlet of the metal melt flow guide cavity 13 are both gear-shaped, the number of teeth of the gear is 14-20 teeth, and the deflection angle between the two sections is 18-36 degrees. The spiral metal melt flow guide cavity of the flow guide pipe can enable molten metal to flow out in a divergent mode, the contact area between the molten metal and the air flow is increased, the impact crushing effect of the air flow on the metal melt is better, energy loss is reduced, and the collection rate of fine powder is improved.
Referring to fig. 7, the cooling device is a circulating water cooling device 6 sleeved on the periphery of the aerosolization nozzle 1, the circulating water cooling device 6 is of a circular cavity structure, and the circulating water cooling device 6 is connected with a water pipe 8 and a water drain pipe 9. The circulating water cooling device 6 is provided with an arc-shaped groove 10 for accommodating the air inlet pipe 4, and the water delivery pipe 8 and the water discharge pipe 9 are symmetrically arranged relative to the air inlet pipe 4.
The embodiment of the invention discloses a use method of a supersonic atomizer, which comprises the following steps:
firstly, the liquid guide tube 11 is arranged in a through hole of the gas atomization nozzle 1, and then a cooling device is arranged on the gas atomization nozzle 1;
Connecting the air inlet pipe 4 with an external air bottle, connecting the cooling device with an external water tank and starting cooling water circulation;
And thirdly, dripping the metal melt into the liquid guide pipe 11, enabling the metal melt to flow out along the liquid guide pipe 11, and enabling the flowing-out metal melt to be impacted and broken into fine molten drops at the bottom end of the gas atomizing nozzle 1 by a supersonic gas flow field flowing out of the gas flow channel 3 and be gradually solidified into metal powder.
The lower end cylinder of the liquid guide tube 11 is inserted into the through hole of the gas atomization nozzle 1, then the gas atomization nozzle 1 is installed in the hollow area of the circulating water cooling device 6, and meanwhile, the gas atomization nozzle 1, the circulating water cooling device 6 and the liquid guide tube 11 are combined into an integral supersonic atomizer after the air inlet pipe 4 is embedded into the arc-shaped groove 10.
After the atomizer is installed, the air inlet pipe is connected with an external air bottle, as shown in fig. 8, air flows enter the air accommodating cavity at supersonic speed through the Laval type air inlet pipe, are sprayed out at supersonic speed through the annular air flow channel at the bottom of the air accommodating cavity, and a plurality of air flows are converged into a stable air flow field. The water delivery pipe 8 and the water discharge pipe 9 are connected with an external water tank, the water delivery pipe 8 starts to feed water, water flows to fill the liquid accommodating cavity and flows out from the water discharge pipe 9, the interior of the atomizer is cooled through the water circulation system, then the metal melt is dripped into the metal melt accommodating cavity 12, the metal melt flows out spirally along the metal melt diversion cavity 13, and the flowing metal melt is broken into tiny molten drops and gradually solidified into metal powder by the impact of the supersonic gas flow field at the bottom end of the central hole of the gas atomization nozzle.
In summary, the invention effectively solves the defects of large gas rate attenuation, high working temperature and large energy loss by combining the gas atomization nozzle, the flow guide pipe and the circulating water cooling device, narrows the particle size distribution of the metal powder, improves the collection rate of fine powder, and meets the requirements of additive manufacturing technology on the particle size and the performance of the metal powder particles.
The working principle of the invention is as follows:
The supersonic atomizer consists of three parts, including an air atomizing nozzle, a circulating water cooling device and a liquid guide tube. In the aerosolizing nozzle of the present invention, a central aperture is provided at the upper end of the nozzle body for securing the catheter. The inside is equipped with annular air cavity, and the outer wall of annular air cavity is equipped with single gas-supply pipe, and the gas-supply pipe links to each other with outside gas cylinder, and the gas inlet department that gas-supply pipe and annular air cavity are connected is Laval structure. The gas atomization nozzle is designed in an annular hole, the bottom of the annular air cavity is a conical surface, a gas channel surrounds the conical surface, and the gas channel and the upper wall surface and the lower wall surface of the annular air cavity form a Laval structure.
Example 1
In the experimental example, the supersonic atomizer with the double Laval structure is used, the spraying angle alpha is 30 degrees, the diameter phi of the flow guide pipe 11 is 10mm, the ratio of the throat part to the length of the expansion section in the gas channel 3 is 1:2, and the ratio of the throat part to the width of the expansion section is 1:3. The material is 316L stainless steel melt, the smelting temperature is 1600 ℃, the atomizing gas is argon, and the atomizing pressure is 4MPa. An SEM image of the 316L stainless steel powder produced by the atomizer is shown in fig. 9. After atomization, the prepared powder was subjected to powder particle size measurement by standard analytical screening, the proportion of 316L stainless steel powder particle size smaller than 100 μm was 84%, the proportion of powder particle size below 53 μm was 64%, and the average particle size D 50 of the powder was 38. Mu.m.
The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention, but various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.