Phase-Field Simulation of Solidifying Microstructure in the Presence of a Convective Field

Here we present a contribution to the microstructure based design of new steel alloys by a careful investigation of multiphase microstructure solidification in a convective field. To this end we present an extension of the quantitative phase-field model proposed in [1] to investigate the influence of hydrodynamic convection on the growth of eutectic/peritectic alloys. We study directional solidification of a eutectic alloy under the influence of a shear flow ahead of the solidifying front. We mainly investigate the growth of a eutectic lamellar structure. We show that the imposed flow tilts the whole lamellar structure away from the flow direction. Moreover, we show that forced flow alters the growth morphology of Fe-Ni peritectic alloys, having a strong influence on the nucleation of the peritectic phase. Based on these investigations, a scale relation between the strength of flow and the solid volume fraction is derived. Further we propose an application of these models as an alternative approach to study heterogeneous nucleation kinetics in the solidification of peritectic materials systems.