Numerical and experimental analysis of an approach based on variable solute distribution coefficients during purification by zone refining

摘要

A combined theoretical and experimental approach was undertaken to quantitatively determine the influence of a variable solute distribution coefficient,k,on the impurity distribution in multi-pass purification by zone refining.A numerical model capable of predicting the solute redistribution at any stage of a multi-pass zone refining was used for providing simulations.Experimental work on zone refining was carried-out with Sb,Pb and Sn samples.Axial impurities profiles have been experimentally determined for a number of zone passes.These results have been compared with the theoretical predictions by adopting both variable and constant k values.It has been shown that the adoption of a variable solute distribution approach in the simulation of impurity profiles during different zone passes of zone refining are generally much closer to the experimental profiles than the usual adoption of a constant k.