Investigation into the behaviour of aluminium and steel under melt/freeze cyclic conditions

•The performance of aluminium in contact with carbon and stainless steels over 100 cycles is measured.•Initial results suggest that some degradation in melting/freezing onset temperature and phase change duration occurs.•Significant degradation of carbon steel can be seen on both the outer and inner surface of the crucible.•While degradation of the stainless steel surfaces occurred, it was to a much less extent.•EDS shows that an interface between aluminium and steel did not readily occur under the test conditions.