Abstract
Based on synchrotron X-ray tomography and electron backscattered diffraction techniques, recent studies revealed that the α-Mg dendrite exhibited an 18-primary-branch morphology in 3D, of which six grew along \( < 11\overline{2}0 > \) on the basal plane, whereas the other twelve along \( < 11\overline{2}3 > \) on non-basal planes. To describe this growth behaviour and simulate the morphology of the α-Mg dendrite in 3D, an anisotropy function based on cubic harmonics was developed and coupled into a 3D phase field model previously developed by the current authors. Results showed that this anisotropy function, together with the phase field model could perfectly describe the 18-primary-branch dendrite morphology for the magnesium alloys. The growth tendency or orientation selection of the 18-primary-branch morphology was further investigated by performing ab initio first principle calculations based on the hexagonal symmetry structure. It was showed that those crystallographic planes normal to the preferred growth directions of α-Mg dendrite were characterized by higher surface energy than these of others, i.e. coinciding with the 18-primary-branch dendritic morphology. Apart from agreement with experiment results and providing great insights in understanding dendrite growth behaviour, such multiscale computing scheme could also be employed as a standard tool for studying general pattern formation behaviours in solidification.
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Acknowledgements
The work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFB0301001), the Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program (20151080370) and the UK Royal Society Newton International Fellowship Scheme. The authors would like to thank the supports from Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility for the provision of beam time and the National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology in Tsinghua University for access to supercomputing facilities.
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Du, J., Guo, Z., Yang, M., Xiong, S. (2017). Multiscale Simulation of α-Mg Dendrite Growth via 3D Phase Field Modeling and Ab Initio First Principle Calculations. In: Mason, P., et al. Proceedings of the 4th World Congress on Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME 2017). The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57864-4_24
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