Takehiko Ishikawa

Abstract The relationships between materials processing and structure can vary between terrestrial and reduced gravity environments. As one case study, we compare the nonequilibrium melt processing of a rare-earth titanate, nominally 83TiO₂-17Nd₂O₃, and the structure of its glassy and crystalline products. Density and thermal expansion for the liquid, supercooled liquid, and glass are measured over 300–1850 °C using the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) in microgravity, and two replicate density measurements were reproducible to within 0.4%. Cooling rates in ELF are 40–110 °C s⁻¹ lower than those in a terrestrial aerodynamic levitator due to the absence of forced convection. X-ray/neutron total scattering and Raman spectroscopy indicate that glasses processed on Earth and in microgravity exhibit similar atomic structures, with only subtle differences that are consistent with compositional variations of ~2 mol. % Nd₂O₃. The glass atomic network contains a mixture of corner- and edge-sharing Ti-O polyhedra, and the fraction of edge-sharing arrangements decreases with increasing Nd₂O₃ content. X-ray tomography and electron microscopy of crystalline products reveal substantial differences in microstructure, grain size, and crystalline phases, which arise from differences in the melt processes.

A study of uncertainty analysis was conducted on four key thermophysical properties of molten Platinum using a non-contacting levitation technique. More specifically, this work demonstrates a detailed reporting of the uncertainties associated with the density, volumetric thermal expansion coefficient, surface tension and viscosity measurements at higher temperatures for a widely used refractory metal, Platinum using electrostatic levitation (ESL). The microgravity experiments were conducted using JAXA’s Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) facility on the International Space Station and the terrestrial experiments were conducted using NASA’s Marshal Space Flight Center’s ESL facility. The performance of these two facilities were then quantified based on the measurement precision and accuracy using the metrological International Standards Organization’s Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty Measurement (GUM) principles.

Abstract 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.