Growth mechanism of primary needles during the solidification of chromium carbide overlays

A mechanism for modelling the growth of faceted primary M7C3 needles during solidification of chromium carbide overlays is presented for the first time. In contrast with existing models that consider diffusion-controlled growth over the length of the needle, this work disaggregates the flow of solute at the tip (diffusion-controlled) and the faceted sides (interface-controlled). The proposed solution predicts an initial transient followed by a steady state longitudinal growth. The outward growth of the needle prism faces is linear and slow, consistent with interface-dominated kinetics. Abrupt decreases in longitudinal growth rate was observed when the tip of the carbides approached other carbides, consistent a soft-impingement effect when the diffusion field of two carbides a overlap. The model was compared to in-situ visualisation of the solidification of an alloy with primary chromium carbide needles, and was found to match closely to observations. (C) 2018 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.