Monte Carlo simulation of solidification

The solidification process in metals and alloys is the competitive growth of solid phase between existing solid phase and new solid nuclei. Combined with classical growth kinetics and a new nucleation criterion, a two dimensional Monte Carlo simulation technique was applied to simulate this metallurgical phenomenon in present studies. The simulation results on isothermal solidification showed that an Avrami-type solidification kinetics was exhibited in this model. The simulation results on continuous cooling solidification revealed that a wide range of microstructures from complete columnar structure to fully equiaxed grains can be obtained by changing the nucleation criterion, and that the undercooling of the melts can also affect the solidified microstructures.