Studies of infiltration by apparent thermogravimetry

A technique named ‘apparent thermogravimetry’ (ATG) has been developed for studying infiltration phenomena. It has been used for investigating of infiltration of copper, cast iron, and cobalt alloys into porous tungsten, sintered steel, and tungsten carbide. A description of ATG signal behaviour has been obtained, taking into account ‘internal’ (capillary, viscous, gravitational, end-drag) and ‘external’ (wetting, buoyancy, Archimedean) forces. Dependencies of Archimedean foroe and wetting angle on different parameters are described in relation to the infiltration mechanism. The ATG method can be used to determine surface tension or contact angle.