Kinetics of Reactive Wetting
The importance of interfacial processes in materials joining has a long history. A significant amount of work has suggested that processes collateral to wetting can affect the extent of wetting and moderate or retard wetting rate. Even very small additions of a constituent, known to react with the substrate, cause pronounced improvement in wetting and are exploited in braze alloys, especially those used for joining to ceramics. The wide diversity of processes, such as diffusion, chemical reaction, and fluxing, and their possible combinations suggest that various rate laws should be expected for wetting kinetics depending on the controlling processes. These rate laws are expected to differ crucially from the standard fluid controlled wetting models found in the literature. Voitovitch et al. and Mortensen et al. have shown data that suggests diffusion control for some systems and reaction control for others. They also presented a model of wetting kinetics controlled by the diffusion of a constituent contained by the wetting fluid. In the following a model will be constructed for the wetting kinetics of a small droplet of metal containing a constituent that diffuses to the wetting line and chemically reacts with a flat, smooth substrate. The model is similar to that of Voitovitch et al. and Mortensen et al. but incorporates chemical reaction kinetics such that the result contains both diffusion and reaction kinetics. The model is constructed in the circular cylinder coordinate system, satisfies the diffusion equation under conditions of slow flow, and considers diffusion and reaction at the wetting line to be processes in series. This is done by solving the diffusion equation with proper initial and boundary conditions, computing the diffusive flux at the wetting line and equating this to both the convective flux and reaction flux. This procedure is similar to equating the current flowing in components of a series circuit. The wetting rate will be computed versus time for a variety of diffusion and reaction conditions. A transition is observed from nonlinear (diffusive) to linear (reactive) behavior as the control parameters (such as the diffusion coefficient) are modified. This is in agreement with experimental observations. The adequacy of the slow flow condition, used in this type of analysis, is discussed and an amended procedure is suggested.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 12670
- Report Number(s):
- SAND99-2302J; TRN: AH200120%%378
- Journal Information:
- Scripta Materialia, Other Information: Submitted to Scripta Materialia; PBD: 9 Sep 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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