Research Initiation Award: An Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Convective Heat and Mass Transfer During Solidification of a Metal Alloy

ABSTRACT -- CTS 9308359 Prescott Funding is requested from NSF to support the initiation of a research program aimed at improving the understanding of convective transport phenomena during solid-liquid phase change of binary metal alloys. Since the transport of momentum, heat, and species strongly influence the metallurgical structure, chemical homogeneity, formation of voids, and entrapment of inclusions in solidified materials, improvements in phase change processes depend on having a detailed understanding of the attendant transport phenomena. Binary solid-liquid phase change processes are further complicated by coupling between micro- and macro-scale phenomena which is to be examined in the proposed project. A combined experimental and theoretical approach is proposed to study transport phenomena in metal alloys. The experimental portion of the study will utilize neutron radiography to perform post-experimental chemical analyses of ingot sections, as well as to obtain real-time records of species redistribution during phase change. The theoretical portion of the study will involve numerical computations based on a continuum model to account for stochastic behavior of the two phase (mushy) region and non-equilibrium effects, such as undercooling and recalescence.