Effect of interface wetting on flattening of freely fallen metal droplet onto flat substrate surface

Abstract

A free-falling experiment was conducted as a simulation of a thermal spray process. The flattening behavior of the freely fallen metal droplet impinged onto a flat substrate surface was investigated in a fundamental way. The substrates were kept at various temperatures, and the substrates were coated with gold by physical vapor deposition (PVD) and were prepared in order to investigate the effect of wetting at the splat-substrate interface on the flattening behavior of the droplet. A falling atmosphere was created with atmospheric pressure of nitrogen to prevent the oxidation of the melted droplet. Experiments under low-pressure conditions also were conducted. The different types of splat morphology were recognized in experiments conducted under a nitrogen atmosphere with atmospheric pressure. The splat morphology on a substrate at room temperature was of the splash type, whereas that on a substrate at high temperature was of the disk type. The microstructure observed on a cross-section of the splat obtained on the substrate at room temperature was an isotropic coarse grain, whereas that on the substrate at high temperature was a fine columnar grain. The grain size changed transitionally with increasing substrate temperature. The temperature of the transition on the gold-coated substrate was higher than that on the naked substrate. The microstructure of the cross-section of the splat obtained under low pressure was finely columnar even on the substrate at room temperature. The results indicate that the metal droplet wets better under the low-pressure condition than under the atmospheric pressure nitrogen condition and that wetting has a significant role in the flattening of the droplet.