Experimental Examination of the Solidification of a SugarWax Mixture

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Experimental Examination of the Solidification of
a Sugar-Wax Mixture
Brendon Lewis Heather Stern Alice Su
Thermal Analysis of Materials Processing
Laboratory Tufts University Medford, MA June 5,
1998
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Process - the mold - the thermocouple -
the mixture
Experimental data - the temperature graph
- microscope pictures Observations -
Things we noted during the experiment Conclusion
- What we learned - More
research that can be done
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We want to know

• What happens when a wax-sugar mixture is left to
  solidify at
• room temperature
• Cooling curves for each thermocouple
• -Does the location of the thermocouple
  affect temperature
• readings?
• Microstructure of the solidified mixture

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Experimental Setup - Creating the Mold
The mold - Created using rapid prototyping -
Placed two thermocouples to read temperatures in
different parts of the mold

thermocouples
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Experimental Setup - Creating the Mixture
The sugar mixture -dissolve sugar in water
-sugar heated to around 300oC or
until amber color
The wax mixture - beeswax pellets
The sugar-wax mixture - Wax added into beaker
containing the sugar solution when sugar
solution turned amber
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Results

The temperature time graph we obtained

• Shows a continuous decrease in temperature
• The temperature near the wall of the mold was
• lower than the temperature in the center

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Results

The solid obtained after breaking the mold
A distinct sugar and wax region can be seen
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Results

Different parts of the cone
Wax
Sugar
Sugar and Wax
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Results
Sugar Region
Sugar-wax interface
Wax Region
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Results

The microstructure of mixture upon
solidification
Regions of sugar crystal in wax
Regions of wax in sugar crystal
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Conclusions

Mold - Wax decreases in volume as temperature
decreases - Difficult to remove cone from mold
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Conclusions

Mold - Wax decreases in volume as temperature
decreases - Difficult to remove cone from mold
Temperature - Continuous cooling curve -
Temperature readings near the outer edge were
lower
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Conclusions

Mold - Wax decreases in volume as temperature
decreases - Difficult to remove cone from mold
Temperature - Continuous cooling curve -
Temperature readings near the outer edge were
lower
Microstructure - Sugar appears smooth surfaced
- Wax has uneven surface
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Further Research Possibilities

• Try adding wax at different times during heating
  of sugar solution
• Explore different sugar-wax concentrations
• Try different cooling rates
• Experiment with different shapes