Modeling of Microstructure and Microsegregation in Solidification of Multi-Component Alloys

Driven by industrial demand, extensive efforts have been made to investigate microstructure evolution and microsegregation development during solidification of multicomponent alloys. This paper briefly reviews the recent progress in modeling of microstructures and microsegregation in solidification of multicomponent alloys using various models including micromodel, phase field, front tracking, and cellular automaton approaches. A two-dimensional modified cellular automaton (MCA) model coupled with phase diagram software PanEngine is presented for the prediction of microstructures and microsegregation in the solidification of ternary alloys. The model adopts MCA technique to simulate dendritic growth. The thermodynamic data needed for determining the dynamics of dendritic growth are calculated with PanEngine. After validating the model by comparing the simulated values with the prediction of the Scheil model for solute profiles in the primary dendrites as a function of solid fraction, the model was applied to simulate the microstructure and microsegregation in the solidification of Al-rich ternary alloys. The simulation results demonstrate the capabilities of the present model not only to simulate realistic dendrite morphologies, but also to predict quantitatively the microsegregation profiles in the solidification of multi-component alloys.