Dear Colleagues,

The search for new components with enhancing performance and the need for production cost reduction is limited today by the available processing technologies. Thus, new affordable processing techniques to process novel materials/alloys and reinforcement alloys, which are environmentally friendly and extremely effective, are necessary to overcome this bottleneck. During the last several years, we have been confronted with new developments in light alloys casting and manufacturing, namely in demand for new degassing, refinement, and reinforcement alloys techniques. Ultrasonic melt treatment is one such alternative being studied whose mechanism involved in the process is physical. During the application of high-intensity ultrasonic to liquid metal, the acoustic cavitation and streaming promoted by ultrasonication leads to cast microstructure refinement, dispersion of micro/nanoparticles, and removal of gasses and oxides from the melt. This technique is advantageous for degassing, grain refinement, and alloy reinforcement, increasing the mechanical properties and soundness of light alloy components. However, this technique has problems due to its application in high temperatures and the use of metallic sonotrodes that may have an affinity to react with the melts during the process. Moreover, the transfer of this technique to the industrial scale remains a challenge. Hence, just with a multidisciplinary work that considers integrating knowledge of materials engineering and equipment and processing design, it will be possible to overcome these issues. Therefore, the research topic covers innovative and novel research contributions in advanced technology in ultrasonic melt treatment.  Full-length research articles, reviews, prospects, and mini-reviews that report ultrasonic melt treatment in light alloy remit progress are welcome. Areas to be covered in this Special Issue may include but are not limited to:

• Design, manufacturing, and operability of ultrasonic systems applied in light alloy melt treatment;
• Integration of ultrasonic equipment in casting processes;
• Numerical modeling and experimental validation of the effect of ultrasonic melt treatment;
• Ultrasonic melt processing as a route to integrating reinforcement particles (MMCs and MMNCs) in semi-solid and liquid melt.

Dr. Hélder Puga
Guest Editor

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• ultrasonic melt processing
• light alloys
• design and optimization
• grain size
• intermetallic phases
• mechanical properties
• acoustic cavitation
• non-linear acoustics