Structure of the scientific team
The projects are motivated by the ubiquitous need of thermophysical properties for the modelling of industrial casting and solidification processes which has become an indispensable tool in the development and optimization of casting technology. ThermoLab applies thermoanalytical methods in ground-based laboratory and novel containerless processing techniques based on electromagnetic levitation under reduced-gravity conditions on Parabolic Flights and, in particular, on the International Space Station ISS.
The project cluster is organized into the ESA funded MAP project ThermoProp and the ESA SciSpacE project ThermoLab-ISS. Both contain the ThermoLab Core Team, which consists of the DLR funded project ThermoLab and other groups of scientists.
ThermoProp
The ThermoProp project, beeing a MAP (Microgravity Application Promotion) project consists of the ThermoLab Core Team and also facilitates industrial partners, who are proposing industrial alloys for investigations and profit from the obtained results.
ThermoLab-ISS
ThermoLab-ISS, a ESA SciSpacE (Science in the Space Environment ) project, is the framework that brings a broad range of international scientists together. The large expertise of the top researchers from USA, Japan, China, India etc. in different scientific aspects related to the research on thermophysical properties of molten alloys enables the exploitation of the full potential of the programme.
ThermoLab
An integral part of the ThermoLab Core Team is the german DLR funded ThermoLab project, which has the objective to measure thermophysical properties of metallic melts under microgravity. This is done using parabolic flights, which offer about 20 seconds of microgravity. But the main focus is on measurements performed in the electromagnetic levitator (ISS-EML) on board the international space station (ISS) which enables much longer measurement times (up to 20 minutes).