Simulation for microstructure evolution of Al-Si alloys in solidification process
(School of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China)
Abstract: The numerical simulation for microstructure evolution of Al-Si alloy in solidification process is carried out with phase field model. The phase field model, solution algorithm and the program of dendrite growth are introduced. The definition of initial condition, boundary condition and the stability condition of differential format are all included. The simulation results show that the evolution of dendrite morphology is as follows: the initial circle nucleus transforms to the rectangle one firstly, then its corners develop to the four trunks and from which the secondary side branches are generated and even the third side branches are produced from secondary ones. The dendrite tip radius decreases quickly at the initial stage and changes slowly at the late stage, which is mainly due to the fact that more and more side branches appear and grow up. The comparisons of dendrite morphology between simulated results and investigations by others are also presented. It is proved that the dendrite morphologies are similar in trunks and arms growth, so the developed phase field program is accurate.
Key words: phase field model; numerical simulation; microstructure evolution; dendrite morphology; Al-Si alloy