Electrical resistivity of pb and pb-10 wt pct sn during solidification

The electrical resistivities of Pb and Pb-10 wt pct Sn alloy were measured during cooling and solidification. Three regimes corresponding to events when the metals were all liquid, liquid plus solid, and all solid were eminent. In particular, the nucleation and growth of the solid were captured by measuring the electrical resistivity. The resistivities of the liquid at the nucleation temperature of lead and of Pb-10 wt pct Sn are 94.7 and 85.7 μΩ. cm, respectively, and nucleation in these systems occurred at 326.9 °C and 301 °C, respectively. In lead, it was found that the ratio of resistivity of the liquid at the melting temperature to the resistivity of the solid was 1.92. The resistivity data were used to estimate the mass fraction of solid as a function of temperature during solidification. The method of measuring resistivity and temperature or the models for predicting electrical resistivity of two-phase mixtures should be improved before this method can be made quantitative.