Effects of solute concentration in liquid on pore shape in solid

The effects of initial solute gas concentration in the liquid on the shape of a pore, resulting from a nucleated bubble entrapped by a solidification front, are predicted in this work. Solute concentration in liquid is responsible for solute transfer across the bubble cap, gas pressure in the pore, and shapes of the cap and pore in solid. Distributions and shapes of pores in solids influence not only microstructure of materials, but also contemporary issues of biology, engineering, foods, geophysics and climate change, etc. In this work, the relevant pore shape delineated by tracing contact angle of the cap to a first approximation is determined by accounting for mass and momentum transport across a self-consistent shape of the cap whose surface is satisfied by physico-chemical equilibrium, as proposed previously. This work finds that there exist three different mechanisms for pore formation, depending on directions and magnitude of solute transfer across the cap. Case 1 is subject to solute transport from the pore into surrounding liquid as a result of the cap emerged from a thin concentration boundary layer on the solidification front. An increase in initial solute concentration in liquid decreases pore radius and times for bubble entrapment. Opposite directions of solute transport across the cap submerged into a thick concentration boundary layer along the solidification front, however, cannot result in bubble entrapment, because solute concentration at the cap increases and decreases rapidly in late stage in Cases 2a and 2b, respectively. The predicted pore shape in solid agrees with experimental data. The pore shape therefore can be controlled by initial solute concentration to change directions and magnitudes of solute transport across the cap.