Modelling of binary alloy solidification in the MEPHISTO experiment

Abstract A modified enthalpy method was used to numerically model experiments on solidification of a bismuth-tin alloy which were performed during the 1997 flight of the MEPHISTO-4 experiment on the US Space Shuttle Columbia. This modified enthalpy method was incorporated into an in-house code SOLCON and a commercial CFD code CFX; Soret effect was taken into account by including an additional thermo-diffusion term into the solute transport equation and the effects of thermal and solutal convection in the microgravity environment and of concentration-dependent melting temperature on the phase change processes were also included. In this paper an overview of the results obtained as part of MEPHISTO project is presented. The numerical solutions are compared with actual microprobe results obtained from the MEPHISTO experiment. To cite this article: E. Leonardi et al., C. R. Mecanique 332 (2004).