Gravity effects on fluid front dynamics during mold filling

The effect of gravity on free surface shape during the filling of a disk-shaped cavity is experimentally studied. A disk-shaped mold cavity is constructed to measure spreading of the fluid front due to gravity. Fluid front sensors are mounted on the top and bottom mold walls at three radial locations. The time the fluid front reaches these sensor locations is recorded. This data is used to calculate the radial distance between the top and bottom of the fluid front at each sensor location. The important parameters that govern the fluid front dynamics are identified as the Reynolds, Bond, and Capillary numbers. Spreading is found to be mainly dependent on the Bond number, such that a large change in spreading is observed due to a small change in Bond number. Spreading increases with decreasing Capillary number and remains nearly constant over the range of Reynolds numbers studied.