Convective effects on directional solidification of a simulated metal alloyThe first significant results of a ground-based experimental program which supports a low gravity space processing Spacelab experiment are reported. The phenomena which precipitate pluming and thus freckling in a metal alloy analog (ammonium chloride and water) are studied in detail and the sequential events leading to massive channeling and convection are optically documented. The pluming is shown to be other than a random burst of unstable fluid from a preferred channel but rather a natural occurrence resulting from a fundamental (Rayleigh-Benard) fluid dynamic instability at the density inversion interface. This extrapolates to critical size parameters appropriate to processing of actual metal alloys.
Document ID
19880034961
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Mccay, T. D. (Tennessee Univ. Tullahoma, TN, United States)
Mccay, M. H. (Tennessee Univ. Tullahoma, TN, United States)
Lowry, S. A. (Tennessee Univ. Tullahoma, TN, United States)
Smith, L. M. (Tennessee, University Tullahoma, United States)