Liquid metal

About: Liquid metal is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6947 publications have been published within this topic receiving 77785 citations. The topic is also known as: liquid alloy & liquid metal alloy.

The metal-non-metal transition and the static and dynamic structure factor of expanded liquid alkali metals

Abstract: This paper reviews neutron scattering experiments on the static and dynamic structure factor of expanded liquid alkali metals from the melting point up to their critical point. Near the critical point, the change from a liquid metal to a non-metal takes place, which implies that the interatomic forces must exhibit drastic changes when the critical point is approached. Characteristic changes of the microscopic structure of the expanded liquid alkali metals have been observed. They expand non-uniformly and the dominant effect on the properties of the expanded liquids derives from a reduced mean coordination number and not from a drastic change of the interparticle distance. Measurements of the coherent dynamic structure factor S(Q, omega ) of expanded liquid rubidium reveal that up to about three times the critical density, the collective ion-ion dynamics is still controlled by the 'electron sea' of the expanded liquid metal. At lower densities of about twice the critical density, however, a drastic change of shape of S(Q, omega ) is observed, which might be due to the presence of paired units in the expanded liquid.

A Controllable Untethered Vehicle Driven by Electrically Actuated Liquid Metal Droplets

Abstract: Liquid metal is an interesting metallic material with many unique properties that can be applied in many applications. Liquid metal droplets can be activated by an external electrical field in aqueous environments, which has led to the development of novel actuators. However, a study on the development and control of liquid metal actuating robots is still absent, which hinders their further applications. In this paper, we report the development of a novel controllable untethered vehicle driven by electrically actuated liquid metal droplets in a sodium hydroxide solution. The simplified dynamic model of the vehicle in sodium hydroxide solution was developed. The vehicle's performance, including translational and rotating locomotion with various speeds, was experimentally evaluated. The vehicle driven by liquid metal droplets possesses many advantages such as working silently, almost wear-free motion, and low power consumed, which has great potential to be applied in liquid metal enabled robotics and automation process such as laboratory automation.

Corrosion phenomena induced by liquid metals in Generation IV reactors

Abstract: The understanding and prediction of corrosion phenomena in liquid metal-cooled reactors is very important for the performance assessment of the structural materials of the different reactor components. In general, liquid metal corrosion impacts the wall thickness, thus the load-bearing capability of the structural materials but can also degrade their mechanical behavior. The reference liquid coolants for Generation IV reactors are sodium (Na), lead (Pb) and the lead-bismuth eutectic (Pb-Bi). Therefore, this chapter addresses the key issues related to the structural materials corrosion in these liquid metals, introducing corrosion mechanism that can be activated under reactor conditions as well as operational parameters affecting them. Moreover, experimental data on corrosion and mechanical properties degradation, as well as theoretical approaches for corrosion prediction, are also included. Finally, corrosion mitigation methods are briefly summarized and an outlook is given.

Finite element modeling of distortion during liquid phase sintering

Abstract: Liquid phase sintering (LPS) is a common technique to consolidate materials that are difficult to process by fusion techniques, such as tungsten heavy alloys. One of the major processing difficulties associated with liquid phase sintered alloys is component distortion and loss of component shape. In LPS, this distortion is the result of viscous flow driven by curvature effects and gravity. A finite element model is developed for viscous flow of the semisolid sintering structure using Stokes equations. This model considers solid volume fraction and effective viscosity of the solid-liquid mixture. The simulation predictions are compared to distortion results for microgravity and ground-based sintering experiments, and they show good agreement. The model results indicate that the effective semisolid viscosity is significantly greater than the liquid metal viscosity. Hence, future work needs to quantitatively examine the factors controlling viscosity and the benefits from such high viscosities in liquid phase sintered systems.