Modeling of liquid metal flow and heat transfer in delivery tube during gas atomization

A numerical model is developed to describe the flow and heat transfer behavior of liquid metals in a cold delivery tube during gas atomization. The influence of processing parameters and material properties on the flow and cooling of the liquid metals are determined by conducting numerical calculations for liquid In, Sn, Bi, Pb, Zn and Sb. Numerical calculations also enabled the prediction of minimum melt superheat needed to prevent the liquid metals from premature solidification during delivery. Direct insight into the complex relationship between the minimum melt superheat, processing parameters and materials properties is obtained using processing maps. Finally, through regression analysis, a quantitative correlation is derived from the numerical results.