Effect of microgravity on the solidification of aluminum–bismuth–tin immiscible alloys

Directional solidification experiment was carried out with Al-Bi-Sn immiscible alloy under microgravity environment onboard the Tiangong 2 space laboratory of China. Sample with a well-dispersed microstructure was obtained by properly designing the experimental scheme, the matrix shows equiaxed morphology, and there is no visible gas cavity or pinhole in the sample. In contrast, the reference samples solidified on earth show phase-segregated structure and contain some gas cavities or pinholes. The grain morphology of the terrestrial sample depends on the solidification direction, it is equiaxed when the sample ampoule was withdrawn against the gravity direction, while it is columnar when the sample ampoule was withdrawn along the gravity direction. The solidification process and affecting mechanisms of microgravity on the microstructure formation are discussed. The results indicate that the microgravity conditions can effectively diminish the convective flow of the melt and the Stokes motions of the minority phase droplets and gas bubbles, which are helpful for suppressing the occurrence of macro-segregation and preventing the formation of porosity. The results also demonstrate that the microgravity conditions favor the detachment between the melt and the wall of crucible, thus increasing the nucleation undercooling of α-Al nuclei and promoting the formation of equiaxed grain.

In Situ Investigation of Grain Migration by TGZM during Solidification in a Temperature Gradient

Temperature Gradient Zone Melting (TGZM) occurs when a liquidsolid zone is submitted to a temperature gradient and leads to the migration of liquid droplets or channels through the solid, up the temperature gradient. TGZM has a major influence on the preparation of the initial solid-liquid interface during the stabilization phase following the directional melting of an alloy and is at the origin of the diffusion of solute towards the top part of the mushy zone. TGZM is also causing the migration up the temperature gradient of dendrite secondary arms during directional solidification, which can have a significant impact on the micro-segregation pattern of the final microstructure. In this communication we report on a directional solidification experiment carried out at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble (France) on Al4.0 wt.% Cu alloy to study the dynamics induced by the TGZM phenomenon on an equiaxed grain that nucleated in front of a columnar structure. Based onin situexperimental observations obtained by synchrotron X-ray radiography, the dissolution of the bottom part of the equiaxed grain is characterized and measurements are compared with predictions of the TGZM theory in diffusive regime.

Influence of Crystal Orientation on the Freckle Formation in Directionally Solidified Superalloys

Freckle occurrence is known to be dependent on the casting size and the superalloy components with large cross section are more prone to freckle formation. In our directional solidification experiment of superalloys freckles are observed in some thin samples, while some significantly thicker samples in the same shell mould cluster remain freckle free. The EBSD analysis shows that the samples with freckles have a good <001> axial orientation, while in freckle free samples the primary dendrite stems diverge from the sample axis. In an analogue system the flow behaviour through a mushy zone was simulated, in which the dendrite network was placed in different orientation. The <001> dendrite array shows the lowest resistance to the vertical melt flow. As the dendrite alignment diverges from <001> orientation, the flow speed slows down and reaches the minimum at the <111> orientation. This orientation effect of the interdendritic permeability explains well why the crystal orientation plays such an important role in the occurrence of freckles in superalloy castings.