Reference Request: Understanding Metal Melting

[JamesO]

Apologies in advance for the abstract nature of this question; I don't know enough about this field to be more detailed. I'm trying to understand the behavior of metal when heat is applied to it. I'd like to be able to answer such questions as: how fast does the metal melt? what is the effect on the parts of the metal where heat is not being applied? what is the effect on the environment surrounding the metal? In particular I'm interested computational modeling of this process. Please feel free to link me to advanced material, as I will attempt to fill in the gaps in my knowledge by consulting the standard reference material.

Thanks a lot,

James

 

[Valerie Park]

The process of heat transfer and its effects on metal can be modeled using a variety of computational methods. These methods include finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and multi-physics simulations. Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses and is used to simulate a range of physical phenomena, such as thermal conduction, convection, radiation, and phase changes. The speed of melting, the effects on parts of the metal where heat is not being applied, and the effects on the environment surrounding the metal can all be modeled using these methods. For more information on these methods and how they can be used to model the effects of heat on metal, you may want to consult books such as Fundamentals of Heat Transfer, 6th Edition by Incropera et al., Computational Fluid Dynamics: Principles and Applications by Anderson et al., or Modeling Heat Transfer by Lienhard and Lienhard. Additionally, there are many online resources with tutorials and sample models that can help you get started in understanding how to use these methods for this type of simulation.