Materials Science Laboratory

It was transferred from the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the Destiny Laboratory shortly after the shuttle docked at the International Space Station some two days after launch.

After that the commissioning activities started to check out first the functionality of the Materials Science Research Rack and MSL inside MSRR.

The major characteristics of the two produced Furnace Inserts are: The LGF is designed mainly for Bridgman crystal growth of semiconductor materials.

The SQF is designed mainly for metallurgical research, with the option of quenching the solidification interface at the end of processing by quickly displacing the cooling zone.

The volume between the experiment sample and the cartridge tube is filled with a pre-defined quantity of krypton, allowing leak detection by mass spectrometry.

MICAST identifies and controls experimentally the fluid-flow patterns that affect microstructure evolution during casting processes, and to develop analytical and advanced numerical models.

The microgravity environment of the International Space Station is of special importance to this project because only there are all gravity-induced convections eliminated and well-defined conditions for solidification prevail that can be disturbed by artificial fluid flow being under full control of the experimenters.

MICAST studies the influence of pure diffusive and convective conditions on aluminium-silicon (AlSi) and aluminium-silicon-iron (AlSiFe) cast alloys on the microstructure evolution during directional solidification with and without rotating magnetic field.

The major objective of CETSOL is to improve and validate the modelling of Columnar-Equiaxed Transition (CET) and of the grain microstructure in solidification processing.

To achieve this goal, intensive deepening of the quantitative characterization of the basic physical phenomena that, from the microscopic to the macroscopic scales, govern microstructure formation and CET will be pursued.