Convective flow during dendritic growth

A review is presented of the major experimental findings obtained from recent ground-based research conducted under the SPAR program. Measurements of dendritic growth at small supercoolings indicate that below approximately 1.5 K a transition occurs from diffusive control to convective control in succinonitrile, a model system chosen for this study. The key theoretical ideas concerning diffusive and convective heat transport during dendritic growth are discussed, and it is shown that a transition in the transport control should occur when the characteristic length for diffusion becomes larger than the characteristic length for convection. The experimental findings and the theoretical ideas discussed suggest that the Fluid Experiment System could provide appropriate experimental diagnostics for flow field visualization and quantification of the fluid dynamical effects presented here

Spontaneous deterministic side-branching behavior in phase-field simulations of equiaxed dendritic growth

The accepted view on dendritic side-branching is that side-branches grow as the result of selective amplification of thermal noise and that in the absence of such noise dendrites would grow without the development of side-arms. However, recently there has been renewed speculation about dendrites displaying deterministic side-branching [see, e.g., M. E. Glicksman, Metall. Mater. Trans A 43, 391 (2012)]. Generally, numerical models of dendritic growth, such as phase-field simulation, have tended to display behaviour which is commensurate with the former view, in that simulated dendrites do not develop side-branches unless noise is introduced into the simulation. However, here, we present simulations that show that under certain conditions deterministic side-branching may occur. We use a model formulated in the thin interface limit and a range of advanced numerical techniques to minimise the numerical noise introduced into the solution, including a multigrid solver. Spontaneous side-branching seems to be favoured by high undercoolings and by intermediate values of the capillary anisotropy, with the most branched structures being obtained for an anisotropy strength of 0.03. From an analysis of the tangential thermal gradients on the solid-liquid interface, the mechanism for side-branching appears to have some similarities with the deterministic model proposed by Glicksman

Anisotropic diffusion limited aggregation in three dimensions : universality and nonuniversality

We explore the macroscopic consequences of lattice anisotropy for diffusion limited aggregation (DLA) in three dimensions. Simple cubic and bcc lattice growths are shown to approach universal asymptotic states in a coherent fashion, and the approach is accelerated by the use of noise reduction. These states are strikingly anisotropic dendrites with a rich hierarchy of structure. For growth on an fcc lattice, our data suggest at least two stable fixed points of anisotropy, one matching the bcc case. Hexagonal growths, favoring six planar and two polar directions, appear to approach a line of asymptotic states with continuously tunable polar anisotropy. The more planar of these growths visually resembles real snowflake morphologies. Our simulations use a new and dimension-independent implementation of the DLA model. The algorithm maintains a hierarchy of sphere coverings of the growth, supporting efficient random walks onto the growth by spherical moves. Anisotropy was introduced by restricting growth to certain preferred directions

Evidance for an Oxygen Diffusion Model for the Electric Pulse Induced Resistance Change Effect in Oxides

Electric pulse induced resistance (EPIR) switching hysteresis loops for Pr0.7Ca0.7MnO3 (PCMO) perovskite oxide films were found to exhibit an additional sharp "shuttle peak" around the negative pulse maximum for films deposited in an oxygen deficient ambient. The device resistance hysteresis loop consists of stable high resistance and low resistance states, and transition regions between them. The resistance relaxation of the "shuttle peak" and its temperature behavior as well as the resistance relaxation in the transition regions were studied, and indicate that the resistance switching relates to oxygen diffusion with activation energy about 0.4eV. An oxygen diffusion model with the oxygen ions (vacancies) as the active agent is proposed for the non-volatile resistance switching effect in PCMO.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Advanced wet-dry cooling tower concept

Thesis. 1977. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.The purpose of this years' work has been to test and analyze the new dry cooling tower surface previously developed. The model heat transfer test apparatus built last year has been instrumented for temperature, humidity and flow measurement and performance has been measured under a variety of operating conditions. Tower Tests showed approximately 40-50% of the total energy transfer as taking place due to evaporation. This can be compared to approximately 80 to 85% for a conventional wet cooling tower. Comparison of the model tower test results with those of a computer simulation has demonstrated the validity of that simulation and its use as a design tool. Computer predictions have been made for a full-size tower system operating at several locations. Experience with this counterflow model tower has suggested that several design problems may be avoided by blowing the cooling air horizontally through the packing section. This crossflow concept was built from the previous counterflow apparatus and included the design and fabrication of new packing plates. Instrumentation and testing of the counterflow model produced data with an average experimental error of 10%. These results were compared to the predictions of a computer model written for the crossflow configuration. In 14 test runs the predicted total heat transfer differed from the measured total heat transfer by no more than 8% with most runs coming well within 5%. With the computer analogy's validity established, it may now be used to help predict the performance of fullscale wet-dry towers

Finite-Difference Lattice Boltzmann Methods for binary fluids

We investigate two-fluid BGK kinetic methods for binary fluids. The developed theory works for asymmetric as well as symmetric systems. For symmetric systems it recovers Sirovich's theory and is summarized in models A and B. For asymmetric systems it contributes models C, D and E which are especially useful when the total masses and/or local temperatures of the two components are greatly different. The kinetic models are discretized based on an octagonal discrete velocity model. The discrete-velocity kinetic models and the continuous ones are required to describe the same hydrodynamic equations. The combination of a discrete-velocity kinetic model and an appropriate finite-difference scheme composes a finite-difference lattice Boltzmann method. The validity of the formulated methods is verified by investigating (i) uniform relaxation processes, (ii) isothermal Couette flow, and (iii) diffusion behavior.Comment: RevTex, 3 figures. Phys. Rev. E (2005, in press

Crossover Scaling in Dendritic Evolution at Low Undercooling

We examine scaling in two-dimensional simulations of dendritic growth at low undercooling, as well as in three-dimensional pivalic acid dendrites grown on NASA's USMP-4 Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment. We report new results on self-similar evolution in both the experiments and simulations. We find that the time dependent scaling of our low undercooling simulations displays a cross-over scaling from a regime different than that characterizing Laplacian growth to steady-state growth

Extending the scope of microscopic solvability: Combination of the Kruskal-Segur method with Zauderer decomposition

Successful applications of the Kruskal-Segur approach to interfacial pattern formation have remained limited due to the necessity of an integral formulation of the problem. This excludes nonlinear bulk equations, rendering convection intractable. Combining the method with Zauderer's asymptotic decomposition scheme, we are able to strongly extend its scope of applicability and solve selection problems based on free boundary formulations in terms of partial differential equations alone. To demonstrate the technique, we give the first analytic solution of the problem of velocity selection for dendritic growth in a forced potential flow.Comment: Submitted to Europhys. Letters, No figures, 5 page

Influence of external flows on crystal growth: numerical investigation

We use a combined phase-field/lattice-Boltzmann scheme [D. Medvedev, K. Kassner, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 72}, 056703 (2005)] to simulate non-facetted crystal growth from an undercooled melt in external flows. Selected growth parameters are determined numerically. For growth patterns at moderate to high undercooling and relatively large anisotropy, the values of the tip radius and selection parameter plotted as a function of the Peclet number fall approximately on single curves. Hence, it may be argued that a parallel flow changes the selected tip radius and growth velocity solely by modifying (increasing) the Peclet number. This has interesting implications for the availability of current selection theories as predictors of growth characteristics under flow. At smaller anisotropy, a modification of the morphology diagram in the plane undercooling versus anisotropy is observed. The transition line from dendrites to doublons is shifted in favour of dendritic patterns, which become faster than doublons as the flow speed is increased, thus rendering the basin of attraction of dendritic structures larger. For small anisotropy and Prandtl number, we find oscillations of the tip velocity in the presence of flow. On increasing the fluid viscosity or decreasing the flow velocity, we observe a reduction in the amplitude of these oscillations.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for Physical Review E; size of some images had to be substantially reduced in comparison to original, resulting in low qualit

Contribution of a time-dependent metric on the dynamics of an interface between two immiscible electro-magnetically controllable Fluids

We consider the case of a deformable material interface between two immiscible moving media, both of them being magnetiable. The time dependence of the metric at the interface introduces a non linear term, proportional to the mean curvature, in the surface dynamical equations of mass momentum and angular momentum. We take into account the effects of that term also in the singular magnetic and electric fields inside the interface which lead to the existence of currents and charges densities through the interface, from the derivation of the Maxwell equations inside both bulks and the interface. Also, we give the expression for the entropy production and of the different thermo-dynamical fluxes. Our results enlarge previous results from other theories where the specific role of the time dependent surface metric was insufficiently stressed.Comment: 25 page