KINETIC AND HEAT TRANSFER-CONTROLLED SOLIDIFICATION OF HIGHLY SUPERCOOLED DROPLETS

An efficient integral profile computational method is used to solve th e problem of the solidification of highly subcooled droplets. The effe cts of surface cooling by radiation and convection, interface crystall ization kinetics and fully time-dependent heat conduction are included in the method. Particular attention is focused on the predicted drop surface temperature time histories as these, together with available e xperimental luminosity time traces for solidifying microspheres of Al2 O3 and ZrO2, are used to infer the coefficient of the kinetic law for Al2O3 crystallization-one of the crucial parameters in a recently prop osed theory of underwater aluminum ignition.