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Review of the Maxus 8 Sounding Rocket Experiment to Investigate Solidification in a Ti-Al-Nb Alloy
2009, Mooney, R., Browne, David J., Budenkova, O., et al.
A review of the MAXUS 8 sounding rocket
microgravity experiment to investigate solidification
structures in a Ti-Al-Nb intermetallic alloy is presented.
The experiment was part of the Intermetallic Materials
Processing in Relation to Earth and Space Solidification
(IMPRESS) EU FP6 project. Key objectives were to
investigate columnar and equiaxed solidification, and to
achieve Columnar-to-Equiaxed Transition (CET) in the
alloy. A microgravity experiment was designed to
achieve this using a controlled power-down method.
Two alloys were tested: one inoculated with a grain
refiner and the other without grain refinement.
Unrefined samples displayed axial and radial columnar
growth. Boride inoculated samples displayed an
equiaxed structure. No clear CET was achieved. The
design, details, and results of the experiment are presented.