A micro/macro integrated model for melt flow and non-equilibrium solidification for thermal spraying

In this paper, a micro/macro-integrated model based on the VOF scheme is presented that accounts for free surface movement, thermal contact resistance, and fluid instability. A sub-model is developed to include the non-equilibrium solidification phenomena at the solid/liquid interface. In the combined model, the free surface location and movement are captured by the VOF technique, and the movement of the solidification interface is determined from the energy balance and the kinetic correlation of the interface velocity and temperature on the interface. The melt flow is incorporated into the microscopic model through interpolation of melt velocities on the macroscopic grids using prescribed velocity profiles. To improve the efficiency of the integration between the melt flow and microscopic model, a relational database has been developed and applied to the integrated micro/macro model. Three velocity profiles, e.g., linear, parabolic, and cubic velocity profiles, are investigated and the results were compared with that from the diffusion model.