Phase-field simulation of solidification dendritic segregation in Ti-45Al alloy

The microstructures and mechanical properties of Ti Al alloys are directly linked to micro-segregation which cannot be avoided during solidification. So a thorough understanding of the micro-segregation should be a great help to further enhance the mechanical properties of the cast products. Theoretical analysis and experiments have been used to predict the micro-segregation, but it is very difficult to observe and determine the dendritic segregation in the micro region. Phase-field method has been employed for the simulation of dendritic growth. However, due to the complicated quasi-sub regular solution model for Ti-45Al(at.%) alloy, the classic phase-field models have difficulty to deal with the free energy. In this work, a phase-field model by linking thermodynamic calculation was used to simulate solidification dendritic segregation of Ti-45 Al alloy for Liquid→Liquid+β(Ti). The free energies of solid phase and liquid phase for Ti-45 Al alloy were calculated by Thermo-Calc and then coupled with the phase-field equations. The simulation results show the dendritic morphology and Al content variations between liquid and growing solid phase for Ti-45 Al alloy. With the growth of the β(Ti), dendritic segregation is formed in the liquid and solid phases due to the solute partitioning and rejection into the liquid. As a result, the dendrite arms are depleted of Al element, while the inter-dendrites are enriched. The dendritic tip growth velocity decreases with the progress of solidification, whereas the segregation ratio increases.

Wettability and Surface Free Energy Analyses of Monolayer Graphene

Recently Rafiee et al. experimentally demonstrated the wetting transparency of graphene, but there is still no comprehensive theoretical explanation of this physical phenomenon. Since surface free energy is one of the most important parameters characterizing material surfaces and is closely related to the wetting behavior, the surface free energy of suspended monolayer graphene is analyzed based on its microscopic formation mechanism. The surface free energy of suspended monolayer graphene is shown to be zero, which suggests its super-hydrophobicity. Neumann's equation of state is applied to further illustrate the contact angle, θ, of any liquid droplet on a suspended monolayer graphene is 180 o. This indicates that the van der Waals(vd W) interactions between the monolayer graphene and any liquid droplet are negligible; thus the monolayer graphene coatings exhibit wetting transparency to the underlying substrate. Moreover, molecular dynamics(MD) simulations are employed to further confirm the wetting transparency of graphene in comparison with experimental results of Rafiee et al. These findings provide a fundamental picture of wetting on ideal single atomic layer materials, including monolayer graphene. Thus, these results provide a useful guide for the design and manufacture of biomaterials, medical instruments, and renewable energy devices with monolayer graphene layers.

The study of disturbance sources energy size identification based on free energy theory

The influence of power system disturbance on safety and stability is serious. Therefore, it is very important to identify the disturbance quickly and accurately. However, until now there is no unilbrm standard evaluation of disturbances on the energy impact strength, also no appropriate method to quantitatively and quickly assess the size of the disturbance energy. In this paper, the relationship between energy enthalpy and free energy in thermodynamics field is introduced into the description of disturbance free energy. And a new method based on energy entropy theory is proposed. In order to analyze the energy characteristics of various types of disturbances in power systems, an amended method of energy entropy is proposed. The free energy of each disturbance is described. Finally, the proposed theory is validated using the standard IEEE 39-bus system. The disturbance free energy is calculated under 5 kinds of disturbances. The proposed method provides a new idea to analyze the disturbance propagation and describe the impact strength of disturbance.