Uncertainty analysis and performance evaluation of thermophysical property measurement of liquid Au in microgravity.

A new method for quantifying facility performance has been discussed in this study that encompasses uncertainties associated with thermophysical property measurement. Four key thermophysical properties: density, volumetric thermal expansion coefficient, surface tension, and viscosity of liquid Au have been measured in microgravity environment using two different levitation facilities. Levitation experiments were conducted using the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) onboard the ISS in Argon and air, and the TEMPUS Electromagnetic Levitation (EML) facility on a Novespace Zero-G aircraft parabolic flight in Argon. The traditional Maximum Amplitude method was augmented through the use of Frequency Crossover method to identify the natural frequency for oscillations induced on a molten sample during Faraday forcing in ESL. The EML tests were conducted using a pulse excitation method where two techniques, one imaging and one non-imaging, were used to study surface oscillations. The results from both facilities are in excellent agreement with the published literature values. A detailed study of the accuracy and precision of the measured values has also been presented in this work to evaluate facility performance.

MHD surrogate model for convection in electromagnetically levitated molten metal droplets processed using the ISS-EML facility.

Electromagnetic levitation experiments in space are an essential tool for thermophysical property measurement and solidification studies. In light of the need for material properties as inputs to industrial process modeling, investigators need new tools for efficient experiment planning. MHD surrogate modeling is a parametric method for prediction of flow conditions during processing using the ISS-EML facility. Flow conditions in model Au, Zr, and Ti39.5Zr39.5Ni21 samples are predicted using the surrogate model. For Au, flow is shown be turbulent in nearly all experimental conditions, making property measurement difficult. For Zr, the flow is turbulent with the heater on and laminar with the heater off, allowing for property measurement during free-cooling experiments only. For TiZrNi, the flow is laminar under all experimental conditions, indicating that TiZrNi is an excellent candidate for EML experiments. This surrogate modeling approach can be easily applied to other materials of interest, enabling investigators to choose materials that will perform well in levitation and to tailor experiment parameters to achieve desirable flow conditions.