Analysis on phase selection and microstructure evolution in directionally solidified Zn-Al-Mg-Ce alloy

In the process of hot-dip Zn-Al-Mg alloy coating,the plating solution dissipates heat in the direction perpendicular to the steel plate,which is considered to be a process of directional solidification.To understand the relationship between microstructure and cooling rate of Zn-Al-Mg alloys,both the phase constitution and microstructure characteristic length scales of Zn-9.5Al-3Mg-0.01Ce(wt.%)alloy were investigated by the directional solidification experiments at different growth velocities(V=40,80,160,250μm·s^(-1)).The experimental results show that the microstructure of directionally solidified Zn-9.5Al-3Mg-0.01Ce alloy is composed of primary Al dendrites and(Zn-Al-Mg2Zn11)ternary eutectics at the growth velocities ranging from 40 to 250μm·s^(-1).The primary Al dendrites are aligned regularly along the growth direction,accompanied with obvious secondary dendrites.The relationship between the microstructure length scale and the thermal parameters of solidification is obtained:λ1=374.66V-0.383,andλ2=167.5V-0.563(λ1is the primary dendrite arm spacing,andλ2 is the secondary dendrit arm spacing).In addition,through the interface response function(IRF)and the nucleation and constitutional undercooling(NCU),the phase selection of Zn-9.5Al-3Mg-0.01Ce is obtained:(Zn+Al+Mg2Zn11)ternary eutectics in the Zn-9.5Al-3Mg-0.01Ce alloy will be replaced by ternary eutectics(Zn+Al+MgZn2)when the growth rate is lower than 7.53μm·s^(-1).