Solidification of A356 Al alloy: Experimental study and modeling

While it is well recognized that microstructure controls the physical and mechanical properties of a material, the complexity of the microstructure often makes it difficult to be simulated by analytical or numerical techniques. In this paper we present a suitable approach to compute microstructures within a casting using the finite element technique. This technique allows implementing microstructure data from experiments and equations that describe microstructure as function of local solidification parameters. The comparison of this model's predictions with the ones in the literature and also experimental measurements of secondary dendrite arm spacing, average length and diameter of silicon rods for A356 alloy are presented in this work. It is revealed that predictions of this study are consistent with the other models and experimental measurements for A356 alloy. The results of this research were also used in order to form analytical equations followed with solidification codes for SUT (Shard University Technology) software.