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Pulsed laser melting in liquid (PLML) is a technique to fabricate spherical submicrometer particles (SMPs) wherein nanosecond pulsed laser (several tens to several hundreds of mJ pulse−1 cm−2) irradiates raw particles dispersed in liquid. Raw particles are transiently heated above the melting point to form spherical particles, which enables pulsed heating of surrounding liquid to form thermally induced bubbles by liquid vaporization. These transient bubbles play an important role as a thermal barrier to rapidly heat the particle. Reduced SMPs are generated from raw metal‐oxide nanoparticles by PLML process in ethanol. This reduction cannot be explained by high‐temperature thermal decomposition, but by mediation of molecules decomposed from ethanol. Computational simulations of ethanol decomposition by pulsed heating for 100 ns at the temperature 1000–4000 K revealed that ethylene is generated as the main product. Gibbs free energies of oxide reduction reactions mediated by ethylene greatly decreased compared to those without ethylene mediation. This explanation can be applied to reductive SMP formation from various transition metal oxides by PLML.

Predicting hot tearing during direct chill casting using thermal stress analysis requires constitutive equations in both semi-solid state and below the solidus of the alloy. However, numerous difficulties have been hindered constitutive equations used heretofore for hot tearing predictions. (1) Testing methods for obtaining material constants were inappropriate. First, the elastic strain reversibility was unconfirmed. Second, a flat distribution of temperature in the specimen gauge length was not guaranteed. Third, strain was measured not from local strain but from cross-head displacement. Fourth, the melt-back phenomenon was unavoidable in test during partial remelting because of homogenization of the segregation structure. (2) Temperature dependence of the strain-rate sensitivity of stress was not considered. (3) Some material constants were inferred, not obtained experimentally. This study developed elasto-viscoplastic constitutive equations (Hooke's and viscoplastic NortonHoff laws) for partially solidified state and below the solidus. To obtain material constants experimentally, two tensile tests for which issue (1) was addressed were conducted using Al-5 mass%Mg alloy. They were a tensile test after partial solidification and high-temperature tensile test with high-frequency induction coil. After the temperature dependence of elastic and viscoplastic properties was investigated, material constants were obtained and were compared with those obtained using earlier testing methods.