Microstructure Formation in Directional Solidification
{'Code': '07030000', 'Directorate': {'LongName': 'Directorate For Engineering'}, 'Division': {'LongName': 'Div Of Civil, Mechanical, & Manufact Inn'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'George F. Keyser'}
Microstructural features of metal and semiconductor alloys such as the          cells and dendrites formed by directional solidification play                   important roles in setting the mechanical and electrical properties of          the product materials.  This project deals with combined theoretical            and experimental effort aimed at quantifying the mechanisms for                 pattern formation in thin-film directional solidification, a                    simplified form of an important materials process.  Theoretical                 analysis and detailed numerical calculations will be used to examine            the transitions involved with wavelength selection in cellular growth.          Theories based on the existence of a quintessential mechanism for               wavelength selection caused by the singular effects of a small surface          energy will be explored by asymptotic analysis and numerical                    calculation.  The hypothesis that a collection of cells is continually          undergoing chaotic dynamical changes will be explored by cellular               dynamics calculations by a new numerical method for accurately                  simulating the interaction of large microstructural patterns.                                                                                                   Experimental measurements of thin-film solidification for an organic            alloy gathered by video imaging and digitally processed will give               quantitative data on cellular shape and wavelength as a function of             time.  Direct comparison between these experiments and calculations             for a quasi-three-dimensional model that accounts for non-idealities            in the experiment will give a quantitative test of the theory.
{'FirstName': 'Robert', 'LastName': 'Brown', 'EmailAddress': 'rab@mit.edu', 'StartDate': '08/01/1987', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'Massachusetts Institute of Technology', 'CityName': 'Cambridge', 'ZipCode': '021394301', 'PhoneNumber': '6172531000', 'StreetAddress': '77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE', 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Massachusetts', 'StateCode': 'MA'}
[{'Code': '1443', 'Text': 'FLUID DYNAMICS'}, {'Code': '1446', 'Text': 'MATERIALS'}, {'Code': '1771', 'Text': 'METAL & METALLIC NANOSTRUCTURE'}]
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1987&All=true', 'xml': '8710124.xml'}