Modelling thermal development of liquid metal flow on rotating disc in centrifugal atomisation

In centrifugal atomisation the formation of a solid skull on the atomising disc is a major problem, which has adverse effects on the quality and quantity of the as-produced powder and also on the balance of the disc during atomisation. It is costly and difficult to study the flow behaviour because of the complex interaction between the liquid metal and the atomising disc. A computational fluid dynamics model has been developed using Flow-3D to simulate the thermal development of the liquid metal on the atomising disc. Under a fixed process condition, the liquid metal has a nearly constant solidification rate before the steady state is achieved and a solid skull is formed gradually. The volume of the skull decreases with increasing liquid metal flow rate, initial disc temperature and initial liquid temperature.