Modeling Dendritic Solidification of Al-3%Cu Using Cellular Automaton and Phase-Field Methods

Abstract

We compared a cellular automaton (CA)-finite element (FE) model and a phase-field (PF)-FE model to simulate equiaxed dendritic growth during the solidification of cubic crystals. The equations of mass and heat transports were solved in the CA-FE model to calculate the temperature field, solute concentration, and the dendritic growth morphology. In the PF-FE model, a PF variable was used to identify solid and liquid phases and another PF variable was considered to determine the evolution of solute concentration. Application to Al-3.0. wt.% Cu alloy illustrates the capability of both CA-FE and PF-FE models in modeling multiple arbitrarily-oriented dendrites in growth of cubic crystals. Simulation results from both models showed quantitatively good agreement with the analytical model developed by Lipton-Glicksman-Kurz (LGK) in the tip growth velocity and the tip equilibrium liquid concentration at a given melt undercooling. The dendrite morphology and computational time obtained from the CA-FE model are compared to those of the PF-FE model and the distinct advantages of both methods are discussed.

Department(s)

Materials Science and Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Computational time; Cu alloy; Cubic crystal; Dendrite morphology; Dendritic growth; Dendritic solidification; FE model; Finite Element; Finite element models; Liquid concentration; Liquid phasis; Mass and heat transport; Melt undercooling; Phase field methods; Phase fields; Solute concentrations; Tip growth; Cellular automata; Dendrites (metallography); Morphology; Solidification; Aluminum

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0307-904X

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2013 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Mar 2013

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