Furnace cylinder

A furnace for the solidification of titanium aluminide (TiAl) alloy ready to be placed into its Large Diameter Centrifuge gondola. The furnace chamber at the cylinder's core is surrounded by ceramic heatshields and buffered by inert argon gas, with telemetry systems and external water-cooling pipes seen wrapped around the cylinder.

The ESA-led GRADECET project (Gravity Dependence of Columnar to equiaxed transition in peritectic TiAl alloys) involves researchers from Germany, Ireland, Slovakia, France and Hungary. It aims to create a detailed mathematical model of how TiAl solidification is influenced by changing gravity levels.

Gravity drives convection flows in the molten metal that influence the solidification process; change the level of gravity and the microscopic grain size of the alloy should change too. The results should help to optimise casting technology on a systematic basis. Data for the GRADECET model are being gathered by solidifying TiAl across a spectrum of gravity levels from ESA's Large Diameter Centrifuge (seen here) for hypergravity to sounding rocket flights for sustained microgravity. GRADECET is supported by ESA's Programme for Life and Physical Sciences in Space (ELIPS).