Electromagnetic levitation containerless processing of metallic materials in microgravity: thermophysical properties.

Transitions from the liquid to the solid state of matter are omnipresent. They form a crucial step in the industrial solidification of metallic alloy melts and are greatly influenced by the thermophysical properties of the melt. Knowledge of the thermophysical properties of liquid metallic alloys is necessary in order to gain a tight control over the solidification pathway, and over the obtained material structure of the solid.

Impact of convection on the damping of an oscillating droplet during viscosity measurement using the ISS-EML facility.

Oscillating droplet experiments are conducted using the Electromagnetic Levitation (EML) facility under microgravity conditions. The droplet of molten metal is internally stirred concurrently with the pulse excitation initiating shape oscillations, allowing viscosity measurement of the liquid melts based on the damping rate of the oscillating droplet. We experimentally investigate the impact of convection on the droplet's damping behavior.

Viscosity of liquid Co-Sn alloys: thermodynamic evaluation and experiment.

Shear viscosity measurements were performed for liquid Co-Sn alloys over a wide temperature range above the respective liquidus temperatures. A high temperature oscillating-cup viscometer was used. It was found experimentally that viscosity as a function of temperature obeys an Arrhenius law.

Excess volume and heat of mixing in Cu-Ti liquid mixture.

Molar excess volume of Cu-Ti liquid mixture has been investigated to elucidate how the excess volume in binary alloys is related to mixing enthalpy and microscopic interactions. Cu-Ti is used as a key example for systems showing positive excess volume and negative mixing enthalpy. For this purpose, the density of several Cu-Ti binary mixtures has been measured over the whole composition range by the containerless technique of electromagnetic levitation as a function of temperature.

Relation between self-diffusion and viscosity in dense liquids: new experimental results from electrostatic levitation.

By using the technique of electrostatic levitation, the Ni self-diffusion, density, and viscosity of liquid Zr(64)Ni(36) have been measured in situ with high precision and accuracy. The inverse of the viscosity, η, measured via the oscillating drop technique, and the self-diffusion coefficient D, obtained from quasielastic neutron scattering experiments, exhibit the same temperature dependence over 1.5 orders of magnitude and in a broad temperature range spanning more than 800 K.