Solidification of Drops in the MSFC Drop Tube

Silver drops (99.9%, 7 mm diameter) were levitated, melted, and released to fall through the Marshall Space Flight Center's 105 m drop tube in an He-6% H atmosphere at 170 degrees superheat. The extent of solidification during the approx. 4.6 s of free fall time prior to impact was measured experimentally and computed numerically using a newly developed solidification heat transfer model. Comparison of the experimental observation of the fraction of liquid transformed with the numerical solutions showed reasonable agreement. Possible modifications of the model, in an attempt to close the gap between the experiment and the model comparison are discussed.