Possible use of Skull melting under microgravity

Skull melting is a special kind of direct inductive heating which allows qu asi-crucible-free processing of materials with very high melting points (30 00 K and above). Under terrestrial gravity, the temperature gradients essen tial to the Skull technique cause buoyancy driven convection in the melt, w hich might interfere with crystal growth. Skull melting could therefore ben efit from processing in a microgravity environment. We report on results of a joint project under contract with the European Space Research and Techno logy Centre (ESTEC), which has evaluated the possible use of Skull melting in microgravity from two main viewpoints: the power efficiency and the expe cted effects of mu g environment on melt convection. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce B.V. All rights reserved.