Dieter M. Herlach Boeken

Bringing together the concerted efforts of the multicomponent materials community in one decisive reference work, this handbook covers all the important aspects from fundamentals to applications: thermodynamics, microscopic processes, solidification, simulation and modeling. As such, it provides a vital understanding of melt and solidification processes, treating all simulation techniques for continuous and discrete systems, such as molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo, and finite elements calculations.

All metallic materials are prepared from the liquid state as their parent phase. Solidification is therefore one of the most important phase transformation in daily human life. Solidification is the transition from liquid to solid state of matter. The conditions under which material is transformed determines the physical and chemical properties of the as-solidified body. The processes involved, like nucleation and crystal growth, are governed by heat and mass transport. Convection and undercooling provide additional processing parameters to tune the solidification process and to control solid material performance from the very beginning of the production chain. To develop a predictive capability for efficient materials production the processes involved in solidification have to be understood in detail. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the solidification of metallic melts processed and undercooled in a containerless manner by drop tube, electromagnetic and electrostatic levitation, and experiments in reduced gravity. The experiments are accompanied by model calculations on the influence of thermodynamic and hydrodynamic conditions that control selection of nucleation mechanisms and modify crystal growth development throughout the solidification process.

Current interest in research of solidification of melts is focussed to understand crystal nucleation and crystal growth. They determine the solidified product with its physical properties. A detailed description of these processes lead to the development and validation of physical models, which may form the basis of quantitative modelling of solidification routes in e. g. casting and foundry processes in order to develop a predictive capability in the design of materials during solidification. This book, based on a symposium held at EUROMAT 2003 aims to gives an overview on current developments in the research of solidification and crystallisation of liquids. The materials of interest range from metals and their alloys over semiconductors and isolators to organic substances.