Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 27, 2025

Reduced-gravity Environment Hardware Demonstrations of a Prototype Miniaturized Flow Cytometer and Companion Microfluidic Mixing Technology
Published on: November 13, 2014
Analysis of gravity effects during binary alloy directional solidification by comparison of microgravity and Earth
Nathalie Bergeon1, Guillaume Reinhart2, Fatima L Mota2
1CNRS, IM2NP, Aix Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, Avenue Escadrille Normandie Niemen, 13397, Marseille Cedex 20, France. nathalie.bergeon@im2np.fr.
Abstract:
Under terrestrial conditions, solidification processes are influenced to a large degree by the gravity effects such as natural convection or buoyancy force, which can dramatically modify the final characteristics of the grown solid. In the last decades, the coupling of in situ observation of growth from the melt, that enables the study of microstructure formation dynamics, and microgravity experimentation, that allows to approach diffusive conditions, has been implemented for both transparent and metallic materials. The results of these investigations enable to test the validity of advanced solidification theories, to validate or develop numerical models and sometimes to reveal unexpected phenomena. The aim of this paper is to present a selection of conclusive experiments obtained with this combined approach in our group to highlight the gravity effects by a comparative study of experiments carried out on earth and in microgravity conditions.
Related Concept Videos
Gravity between Spherical Bodies
This assumption can be proved easily by showing that the expression for gravitational potential energy between a hollow sphere of mass (M) and a point mass (m) is the same as it would be for a pair of extended...
Gravimetry: Overview
In precipitation gravimetry, the analyte is converted into a precipitate and weighed. For example, the silver content in a sample can be estimated by precipitating and...
Specific Gravity of Aggregate
Bulk or gross specific gravity is calculated by taking the ratio of the mass of aggregates in the saturated surface-dry state to the total volume that includes both the solids and the voids within the...
Variation in Acceleration due to Gravity near the Earth's Surface
The difference between the true and apparent weights is proportional to the square of the Earth's...
Gravitation Between Spherically Symmetric Masses
Acceleration due to Gravity on Other Planets
Astronomical observations are thus used to measure the acceleration due to gravity on other planets. This can be determined by observing the effect of a planet's gravity on objects close to it. The crucial factor that helps in this...

