The transient heat transfer rate from a free-falling large drop of molten lead to a cold plate surface maintained at about room temperature was experimentally estimated by solving the inverse heat conduction problem, taking into account the time variation of the area covered by the drop. Furthermore, the change with time in thickness of the solidification layer formed within the drop was estima...

The gradual transformation of a mushy zone during alloy solidification, from a continuous liquid film network to a fully coherent solid, has been simulated using a granular model. Based on a Voronoi tessellation of a random set of nucleation centers, solidification within each polyhedron is computed considering back-diffusion and coalescence. In the network of connected liquid films, a pressure...

The precise measurement of nucleation and non-equilibrium solidification are vital to fields as diverse as atmospheric science, food processing, cryopreservation and metallurgy. The emulsion technique, where the phase under study is partitioned into many droplets suspended within an immiscible continuous phase, is a powerful method for uncovering rates of nucleation and dynamics of phase change...

If a liquid is undercooled below its equilibrium melting temperature an excess Gibbs free energy is created. This gives access to solidification of metastable solids under non-equilibrium conditions. In the present work, techniques of containerless processing are applied. Electromagnetic and electrostatic levitation enable to freely suspend a liquid drop of a few millimeters in diameter. Hetero...