Experimental Investigation of Interfacial Thermal Conductance for Molten Metal Solidification on a Substrate

Experiments have been conducted to quantify the interfacial thermal conductance between molten copper and a cold metallic substrate, and in particular to investigate the heat transfer variation as the initial liquid/solid contact becomes a solid/solid contact after nucleation. A high heat transfer coefficient during the earlier liquid cooling phase and a lower heat transfer coefficient during the subsequent solid splat cooling phase were estimated through matching of model calculations and measured temperature history of the sample. The dynamic variations in the interfacial heat transfer resulting from the solidification process were quantified for splat cooling and were found to be affected by the melt superheat, the substrate material, and the substrate surface finish.