Convection and solidification influenced by thermo-electric effect

Abstract

We analyse the thermo-electric-magnetic (TEM) forces both on the liquid metal and immersed solid particles which mimics equiaxed grains. Firstly, we provide a summary of analytical works performed in a previous paper. Then, we present experimental works on in situ and real time visualization of the directional solidification of Al-10wt%Cu alloy by means of synchrotron X-ray radiography during directional solidification under a transverse 0.08 T permanent magnetic field. The experiments bring definite evidence of the existence of various phenomena which could be related to the thermoelectric effect acting directly on equiaxed grains. Comparisons between the predicted and observed horizontal deviations of the particles are in fairly good agreement.