On the heat transfer at the interface between a solidifying metal and a solid substrate

The interfacial thermal conductance ('h') between a solidifying molten metal layer and a cold solid substrate is a critical parameter for many material processing and manufacturing applications such as continuous slab casting, strip casting, melt-spinning, spray deposition and others. Relatively few comprehensive data on the interfacial thermal conductance for such applications are available, however. In this article we tabulate and review most of the data available in the literature for these processes. Some strong correlations between the estimated values for h and the casting speed or strip thickness are seen to hold over surprisingly wide ranges of parameters. We also discuss some of our recent experimental results showing the effect of various process parameters such as superheat, roughness, and material properties, on the interfacial conductance. The results also quantify the significant variations that this parameter undergoes as the liquid/solid interface becomes a solid/solid interface.