Effect of Forced Convection on Magnesium Dendrite: Comparison between Constant and Altering Flow Fields

Abstract

Convection has a nonnegligible effect on the growth of the magnesium dendrite with six-primary-branch pattern. Most work, however, investigates the effect of the convection by simplifying the melt flow as a constant horizontal flow. In this work, four convection behaviors, including equally distributed convection, linearly distributed convection, sinusoidal-wave convection, and square-wave convection, are imposed and simulated through the phase-field lattice-Boltzmann schemes. The effects of constant (the former two) and altering (the latter two) flow fields are quantified by the length ratio of the upstream primary arm to the downstream one. The results show that the dendrite asymmetry increases under the constant forced convections but presents nonmonotonic change under the altering convections. A simple mathematical relation is fitted to summarize the dependence of the dendrite asymmetry on the input velocity, the undercooling, and the flow frequency. Deep understanding of the convection effects can guide the prediction and control of the magnesium dendrite under more complex situations.