Cellular and Dendritic Growth

Abstract

Many of the alloys used in practice, such as steel, aluminum-copper alloys, nickel-base and copper-base alloys, are single phase alloys, which means that the final product of solidification is a solid solution. Depending on the thermal and compositional field, cellular or, in most practical cases, dendritic morphology will occur. In other cases, even when the room temperature microstructure is mostly eutectic some primary phases solidify before the eutectic. They can be solid solutions, carbides, intermetallic phases, inclusions, etc. Their morphology affects mechanical properties, and thus, understanding how this morphology can be controlled is a mater of significant practical importance. A detailed discussion of primary phase growth, and in particular of dendrite growth, will be provided in the following sections.