Peritectic Coupled Growth

This research project aims to get a complete fundamental understanding of metastable coupled peritectic pattern formation under purely diffusive conditions including of specific transient growth modes. The European Space Agency (ESA) has supported the corresponding METCOMP project and performed during March-Aril 2021 fifteen different solidification experiments onboard of the International Space Station (ISS) using the transparent peritectic TRIS-NPG system as metall-like solidifiying model alloy. Starting from 04.10. 2023 until 17.10. 2023 there are going to be further experiments onboard the ISS. At the moment the around 70.000 pictures showing the evolution of isothermal peritectic growth (IPCG) recorded during the µg-mission are under evaluation.

 

The primary aims and objectives of this research field are:

  • To understand the formation of isothermal peritectic coupled growth (IPCG) and the impact convection might have on the occurrence of this metastable growth mode;
  • To define a suitable process window for the occurrence of IPCG;
  • To perform solidification experiments with the transparent peritectic model alloy TRIS-NPG under micro-gravity conditions on board of the International Space Station (ISS), and compare the observation with its equivalent terrestrial experiments;
  • To investigate the transition from lateral bands to IPCG and to identify transient and steady growth modes;
  • To perform phase field simulation of IPCG and suggest a theoretic framework for the physical processes that favour this metastable growth form;

 

Examples of oscillatory peritectic coupled growth is shown in the above figure. Further details on that research field can be found in:

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