Abstract
High temperature processing of a small specimen without a container has been demonstrated in a set of experiments using an acoustic levitation furnace in the microgravity of space. This processing technique includes the positioning, heating, melting, cooling, and solidification of a material supported without physical contact with a container or other surface. The specimen is supported in a potential energy well, created by an acoustic field, which is sufficiently strong to position the specimen in the microgravity environment of space. This containerless processing apparatus has been successfully tested on the Space Shuttle during the STS-61A mission. In that experiment, three samples were successfully levitated and processed at temperatures from 600 ‡C to 1500 ‡C. Experiment data and results are presented.
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This paper is based on a presentation made in the symposium “Experimental Methods for Microgravity Materials Science Research” presented at the 1988 TMS-AIME Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, January 25–29, 1988, under the auspices of the ASM/MSD Thermodynamic Data Committee and the Material Processing Committee.
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Rey, C.A., Merkley, D.R., Hammarlund, G.R. et al. Acoustic levitation technique for containerless processing at high temperatures in space. Metall Trans A 19, 2619–2623 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02645792
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02645792