Solidification on Ground and in Space: Nucleation, Phase Selection, and Microstructure Evolution

Abstract

We carry out solidification experiments near-equilibrium and in deeply undercooled melts in varyingg environments in-situ. The talk will highlight experiments: i) in the electromagnetic levitation facility aboard ISS, in parabolic flights and in the laboratory on metastable phase formation; ii) the impact of fluid flow on directional solidification from hyper-g to zero-g; iii) in-situ experiments on porosity formation and its interplay with the growing microstructure during solidification; iv) in-situ Xradiography and X-tomoscopy work on dendrite growth in Al-based alloys; v) additive manufacturing in space; and vi) pyrometallurgical slag processing for critical-element enrichment using aerodynamic levitation.