Abstract— The phenomenon of impingement and solidification of a molten metal droplet on a substrate occurs in processes like thermal spray coating and spray casting. Molten metal droplet after impingement over a substrate becomes a splat after spreading and solidification. The phenomenon of spreading and solidification of a droplet can be understood by mathematical modeling. In the present work, the spreading and solidification phenomenon of an impinging liquid metal droplet over a cold substrate are studied numerically using computational fluid dynamics software Fluent and validated experimentally. A model for heat transfer and solidification during impingement of a falling liquid Al-33wt%Cu droplet on a 304 stainless steel substrate has been developed. Al-33wt%Cu was selected so that Jackson-Hunt theory can be utilized for the validation of the impingement model.

Index Terms— Metal droplet impingement, Solidification, Microstructure, Simulation

Cite: Amitesh Kumar, " Solidification of Impinging Molten Metal Droplet on a Cold Substrate," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 486-497, April 2014.