Solidification and Precipitation Microstructure Simulation of a Hypereutectic Al–Mn–Fe–Si Alloy in Semi-Quantitative Phase-Field Modeling with Experimental Aid

Abstract

In this study, microstructural evolution during solidification of a hypereutectic Al–Mn–Fe–Si alloy was investigated using semi-quantitative two-/three-dimensional phase-field modeling. The formation of facetted Al6Mn precipitates and the temperature evolution during solidification were simulated and experimentally validated. The temperature evolution obtained from the phase-field simulation, which was balanced between extracted heat and latent heat release, was compared to the thermal profile of the specimen measured during casting to validate the semi-quantitative phase-field simulation. The casting microstructure, grain morphology, and solute distribution of the specimen were analyzed using electron backscatter diffraction and energy-dispersive spectroscopy and compared with the simulated microstructure. The simulation results identified the different Fe to Mn ratios in Al6(Mnx,Fe1−x) precipitates that formed during different solidification stages and were confirmed by energy-dispersive spectroscopy. The precipitates formed in the late solidification stage were more enriched with Fe than the primary precipitate due to solute segregation in the interdendritic channel. The semi-quantitative model facilitated a direct comparison between the simulation and experimental observations.

Phase field simulation of microstructure evolution and process optimization during homogenization of additively manufactured Inconel 718 alloy

“…Therefore, the phase field and solute field of multi-phases and multi-components could be calculated by coupling CALPHAD database. The coupled method has been successfully employed to investigate the microstructure evolution of multi-components alloy in the sub-rapid solidification process, additive manufacturing process, and heat treatment process (Boussinot et al, 2019;Kumara et al, 2019;Park et al, 2020a;Park et al, 2020b;Kumara et al, 2020;Rahul et al, 2020;Du et al, 2022).…”