Microstructure Evolution during Solidification of AZ91D Magnesium Alloy in Semisolid

The liquid quenching method was adopted to study the solidification morphology and microstructure of AZglD Mg alloy in semisolid. The results indicate that cooling rate has important effects upon the solidification structures. Under the cooling rate of liquid quenching, primary α-phase grows first by attaching on the original α grains, or independent nucleation and growth. The high cooling rate makes primary α-phase grow in ＂rags＂ or dendrite shape. Eutectic solidification is carried out in terms of both dissociated growth and symbiotic growth. The dissociated growth forms rough and large β-phase at grain boundaries, while symbiotic growth forms eutectic of laminar structure. The small liquid pool inside the original α-phase solidifies basically in the same way as that of intergranular liquid, but owing to less amount of liquid phase, the eutectic solidification is mainly carried out in the dissociated pattern.

VOLUME SEGMENTATION BY POST-PROCESSING DATA FROM SIMULATION OF SOLIDIFICATION IN THE METAL CASTING PROCESS

In the process of interpreting simulation results,new post-processing techniques are developed.This work presents a post-processing method that analyzes the solidification pattern formed by simulation of the solidification process of molten metal in a mold to produce shaped castings.Simulations generally involve numerical solutions of differential equations which are discretized by dividing the three-dimensional computational domain into small finite volume elements using a 3D grid.The locations of the grid points and values of the solidification time at these locations are used to divide the spatial data into 3D sections such that starting from a hotspot location within the section that has high solidification time,there is a gradient outwards with lower values of solidification time.Each section is assumed to be fed by one or more feeders that must freeze only after the section has solidified completely.The volume of a feeder can be determined from the volume of the section it is supposed to feed.The volume and surface area of sections are determined approximately to calculate feeder size and dimensions.The post-processing algorithm is a simulation-based quantitative approach to feeder design which in conventional foundry practice has been more of an art than science.It is also general enough for use in other 3D segmentation applications.

Directional Growth of Tin Crystals Controlled by Combined Solute Concentration Gradient Field and Static Magnetic Field

A new method was introduced to achieve directional growth of Sn crystals. Microstructures in liquid （Pb）/ liquid （Sn） diffusion couples were investigated under various static magnetic fields. Results show that the β-Sn crystals mainly reveal an irregular dendritic morphology without or with a relatively low static magnetic field （〈0.3 T）. When the magnetic field is increased to 0.5 T, the β-Sn dendrites close to the final stage of growth begin to show some directional character. With a further increase in the magnetic field to a higher level （0.8-5 T）, the β-Sn dendrites have an enhanced directional growth character, but the dendrites show a certain deflection. As the magnetic field is increased to 12 T, the directional growth of the β-Sn dendrites in the center of the couple is severely destroyed. The mechanism of the directional growth of the β-Sn crystals and the deflection of the β-Sn crystals with the application of static magnetic field was tentatively discussed.