Phase Field Modeling of β(Ti) Solidification in Ti-45at.%Al: Columnar Dendrite Growth at Various Gravity Levels

At present, our understanding of the interaction between melt flow and solidification patterns is still incomplete. In columnar dendritic growth buoyancy driven flow may alter the dendrite tip and spacing selection and consequently the microsegregation of alloying elements. With the aim of supporting directional solidification experiments under hyper-gravity using a large diameter centrifuge (LDC), phase field simulations of β (Ti) dendrite growth have been performed under various gravity conditions for the binary alloy Ti-45at.%Al. The results show that Al segregation at the growth front causes convection rolls around the dendrite tips. The direction of the gravity vector is an essential parameter. When g is opposite to the direction of dendrite growth, increasing gravity leads to a marked decrease of the primary dendrite spacing and to a decrease of the mushy zone length. When g is aligned parallel to the direction of dendrite growth, the primary dendrite spacing and mushy zone length are almost unchanged, however the secondary dendrite arms grow more prominently as the magnitude of g increases.