EFFECT OF CASTING THERMAL PARAMETERS ON THE PRIMARY

DENDRITE ARM SPACINGS DURING HORIZONTAL DIRECTIONAL

SOLIDIFICATION OF THE Al-6wt.%Cu-4wt.%Si TERNARY ALLOY


Otvio Lima da Rocha
Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Par IFPA; Av. Almirante Barroso 1155, CEP
66093-020, Belm, PA, Brazil
e-mail: otvrocha@oi.com.br

Jos Marcelino Dias Filho
Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Par IFPA; Av. Almirante Barroso 1155, CEP
66093-020, Belm, PA, Brazil
e-mail: marcelino_dias@hotmail.com

Rafael Kikushi
Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Par IFPA; Av. Almirante Barroso 1155, CEP
66093-020, Belm, PA, Brazil
e-mail: rafaelkikuchi@hidespace.com.br

Larcio Gouva Gomes
Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Par IFPA; Av. Almirante Barroso 1155, CEP
66093-020, Belm, PA, Brazil
e-mail: laercio.gomes@ifpa.edu.br

Thiago Antnio Costa
Federal University of Par UFPA; Rua Augusto Correa 1, CEP 66075-970, Belm, PA, Brazil
e-mail: tcosta88@gmail.com

Diego Brito Carvalho
Federal University of Par UFPA; Rua Augusto Correa 1, CEP 66075-970, Belm, PA, Brazil
e-mail: diegodlbc@hotmail.com

Antonio Luciano Moreira
Federal University of Par UFPA; Rua Augusto Correa 1, CEP 66075-970, Belm, PA, Brazil
e-mail: alsm@ufpa.br


Abstract. Dendrite growth models for ternary alloys during unsteady state directional solidification are rarely found in
the literature. In this article, in order to investigate the effect of casting thermal parameters such as the growth rate
(VL) and cooling rate (TR) on the primary dendrite arm spacings (1) of Al-6wt.%Cu-4wt.%Si ternary alloy, horizontal
directional solidification experiments have been carried out under unsteady state heat flow conditions. The primary
dendrite arm spacings were measured along the length of samples and correlated with these transient solidification
thermal variables. The experimental variation of primary dendrite spacings is expressed as a power law function of VL
and TR given by the forms 1 = 103(VL)
-1.1
and 1 = 303 (TR)
-0.55
, respectively. A comparative study between the results
of this article and those from the literature proposed to upward vertical directional solidification of Al-6wt.%Cu-
4wt.%Si alloy is also conducted.

Keywords: horizontal directional solidification, unsteady state heat flow, primary dendrite arm spacings, Al-Cu-Si
alloys












1. INTRODUCTION

Aluminum alloys castings had a fundamental role in the growth of the metal-mechanics industry. Nowadays
these alloys are supplied in a wide range of chemical compositions. We highlight the AlCuSi ternary system because
of particular outstanding properties such as high mechanical strength, low weight and very good fluidity. These
qualities make them a good choice for applications in the automotive and aerospace industry. The potential of such
alloys has attracted much attention of researchers with a view to investigating the microstructure evolution during the
solidification process. The presence of dendritic structures during solidification, with concomitant microsegregation, is
of great interest since these solidification features are commonly found in many engineering materials and furthermore,
greatly influence the mechanical behavior.
A number of directional solidification studies characterizing primary (1) and secondary (2) dendrite arm
spacings as a function of alloy concentration (C0), tip growth rate (VL) and temperature gradient ahead of the
macroscopic solidification front (GL) can be found in the literature (Gunduz and adirli, 2002; Rocha et al., 2003;
Ferreira et al., 2010). Bouchard and Kirkaldy (1997) and Garcia (2007) summarized theses studies and grouped them
into two categories: those involving steady state heat flow solidification and those in unsteady-state regime. In the
former category solidification is controlled and the significant controllable variables, GL and VL are kept constant and
are independent of each other. In the latter group, which characterizes, for instance, the solidification conditions of a
body of irregular shape, these variables are interdependent and vary freely with time (Ferreira et al., 2010). The analysis
of dendritic structures in the unsteady-state regime is very important, since it encompasses the majority of industrial
solidification processes. Investigations on primary and secondary dendritic growth of binary alloy systems during
transient solidification are reported in the literature: Sn-Pb (Rocha et al, 2003A; Rocha et al, 2003B), Al-Cu (Gunduz
and adirli, 2002; Rocha et al, 2003A), Pb-Sn (Li et al., 1999), Mg-Al (Zhang et al., 2007). On the other hand, studies
in the field of transient solidification of ternary alloys related to microstructural parameters, solidification modeling,
solute segregation and porosity formation are very scarce (Moutinho et al., 2012). The main difficulty is related to the
determination of the ternary solidification path and the intermediate phase reactions. The microstructural evolution and
growth models for ternary alloys cannot be found in the literature.
The gravity effects in relation to the dendritic growth have been investigated with the chill placed in general on
the bottom or top of the mold. In the case of vertical upward directional solidification, the influence of the convection is
minimized when solute is rejected for the interdendritic regions, providing the formation of an interdendritic liquid
denser than the global volume of liquid metal. When the process is carried out vertically downward, the system
provides the melt convection which arises during the process. In the horizontal unidirectional solidification, when the
chill is placed on the side of the mold, the convection in function of the composition gradients in the liquid always
occurs. An interesting feature of the horizontal configuration is the gradient of solute concentration and density in
vertical direction because solute-rich liquid falls down whereas free solvent-crystals rise due to buoyancy force.
Moreover, there will also be a vertical temperature gradient in the sample as soon as a thermosolutal convection roll
emerges. In spite of these particular physical characteristics, only a few studies (Nogueira et al., 2012) have reported
these important effects of melt convection and direction of growth on dendrite arm spacings for this particular case.
In this work an experimental approach is developed to quantitatively determine and correlate the solidification
thermal variables such as, tip growth rates (VL) and cooling rates (TR), with primary dendrite spacings (1) of Al-
6%wt.Cu-4%wt.Si ternary alloy solidified in unsteady state heat flow conditions. For this purpose, a water-cooled
solidification experimental apparatus was developed.

2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

The Al-6wt.%Cu-4wt.%Si alloy was solidified directionally using the casting assembly schematically shown in
Figure 1. It was designed in such a way that the heat was extracted only through the water-cooled system placed in the
lateral mold wall, promoting horizontal directional solidification. The carbon steel mold used had a wall thickness of 3
mm, a length of 110 mm, a height of 60 mm and a width of 80 mm. The lateral inner mold surfaces were covered with a
layer of insulating alumina and the upper part of the mold was closed with refractory material to prevent heat losses.
The thermal contact condition at the metal/mold interface was also standardized with the heat extracting surface being
polished.
The alloy was melted in situ and heated until a superheat of 10% above the liquidus temperature (TLiq) using an
electrical furnace. Approaching the superheat temperature, the mold was taken from the heater and set immediately on a
water cooled carbon steel chill. Water was circulated through this cooling jacket keeping the carbon steel plate during
the solidification at a constant temperature of about 25
0
C and thus inducing a longitudinal heat transfer from the mold.
Solidification occurred dendritically from the lateral chill surface, forming a columnar structure. During the
solidification process, temperatures at different positions in the alloy samples were measured and the data were acquired
automatically. For the measurements, a set of five fine type K thermocouples, arranged as shown in Figure 1, was used.
The thermocouples were sheathed in 1.6 mm diameter steel tubes, and positioned at 5, 10, 15, 30 and 50 mm from the
heat-extracting surface. The thermocouples were calibrated at the melting point of Al, exhibiting fluctuations of about
0.4
0
C and 1
0
C respectively, and connected by coaxial cables to a data logger interfaced with a computer. Previous
measurements of the temperature field were carried out confirming that the described experimental set-up fulfills the
requirement of an unidirectional heat flow in horizontal direction.

(a)





(b)


Figure 1. (a) Scheme of the experimental apparatus for directional solidification and (b) Furnace schematic showing
thermocouples located at different positions from the metal-cooling chamber interface. (Silva et al., 2009).

Temperature controller
Data acquisition system
Experimental setup
Selected transverse (perpendicular to the growth direction) sections of the directionally solidified specimens at
5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 mm from the metal-mold interface were polished and etched with a solution of 5%
NaOH in water for micrograph examination. Image processing system Olympus BX51 and Image Tool (IT) software
were used to measure primary arm spacings (about 20 independent readings for each selected position, with the average
taken to be the local spacing) and their distribution range. The method used for measuring the primary arm spacing on
the transverse section was the triangle method (Gunduz and adirli, 2002; Rocha et al., 2003A).

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Experimental cooling curves for the five thermocouples inserted into the casting during solidification of the
alloy investigated in this study are shown in Figure 2.


Figure 2. Experimental thermal responses of temperature vs. time for five thermocouples located at different positions
from the metal-cooling chamber interface. TV is the initial melt temperature.


It is well known that the primary dendritic arm spacings are dependent on solidification thermal variables such
as VL and TR all of which vary with time and position during solidification. In order to determine more accurate values
of these parameters, the results of experimental thermal analysis have been used to determine the displacement of the
liquidus isotherm, i.e., the thermocouples readings have also been used to generate a plot of position from the metal/
mold interface as a function of time corresponding to the liquidus front passing by each thermocouple. A curve fitting
technique on such experimental points has generated power functions of position as a function of time. Experimental
positions of liquidus isotherms as a function of time are shown in Figure 3.



Figure 3. Experimental position of liquidus isotherm from the metal-mold interface as function of time.


0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
Al- 6wt.% Cu- 4wt.% Si
T
V
= 684C
T
L
= 622C
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Time (s)
Termopar 5mm
Termopar 10mm
Termopar 15mm
Termopar 30mm
Termopar 50mm
T
L
=622C
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0
10
20
30
40
50
Al- 6wt.% Cu- 4wt.% Si
P
o
s
i
t
i
o
n
,

P

(
m
m
)
Time, t (s)
Experimental
P=1.4(t)
0.79
R
2
= 0.96
The derivative of this function with respect to time has yielded values for VL. The TR profile was calculated by
considering the thermal data recorded immediately after the passing of the liquidus front by each thermocouple. The
method used for measuring the tip cooling rate was used recently by Rocha (Rocha et al., 2003A). Figures 4 and 5
show, respectively, these results.



Figure 4. Tip growth rate as a function of position from the metal-mold interface.



Figure 5. Tip cooling rate as a function of position from the metal-mold interface.

Figure 6 presents microstructures of cross section of samples at 10, 30, and 60 mm from metal/mold interface,
showing the primary dendrite arms. The dendrite arm spacings were sufficiently distinct to make reasonably accurate
measurements along the casting length. Figure 7 shows the average experimental values of primary dendritic spacings
as a function of distance from the metal-mold interface obtained in this work. It is observed that these dendrite arm
spacings increase with the distance from the heat-extracting surface of Al-6wt.%-4wt.%Si alloy investigated. In order to
correlate the primary dendrite arm spacings measured from the afore-mentioned microstructures with solidification
thermal variables, they are plotted as a function of VL and TR in Figures 8 and 9. The average dendritic spacings along
with the standard variation are presented in these figures, with the lines representing an experimental power function fit
with the experimental points. It is observed that the use of a water-cooled mold imposes higher values of tip growth
rates and cooling rates near the casting surface and a decreasing profile along the casting due to the increasing thermal
resistance of the solidified shell with distance from the cooled surface. This influence translates to the observed
experimental values of primary dendritic spacings. As shown in Figure 8, the primary dendrite arm spacing was found
to decrease as the VL is increased. Most of the results from the literature pertaining to 1 in binary (Rocha et al,, 2003A
and 2003B) and ternary (Moutinho et al., 2012) alloys also indicate a decrease in spacing with decreasing VL.
Furthermore, a power law function characterizes the experimental variation of primary spacings with tip growth rate
with an index of 1.1, i.e. 1 (VL)
1.1
. It can be observed in Figure 9 that a 0.55 power law characterizes the
experimental variation of primary spacings with cooling rate. This is in agreement with observations reported by Rocha
et al (2003A) and Moutinho et al.(2012) that exponential relationships 1 = constant (TR)
0.55
best generate the
0 10 20 30 40 50
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
Al- 6wt.% Cu- 4wt.% Si
V
L

(
m
m
/
s
)
Position, P (mm)
Experimental
V
L
=1.2(P )
-0.27
R
2
= 1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Al- 6wt.% Cu- 4wt.% Si
T
R

(

C
/
s
)
Position, P (mm)
Experimental
T
R
=40(P)
-0.93
R
2
= 0.98
experimental variation of primary dendritic arms with cooling rate along the unsteady-state solidification of AlCu and
AlCu-Si alloys, respectively.

P
o
s
i
t
i
o
n
,

P

=

5

m
m



P = 5mm
VL = 0.78 mm/s
TR = 8.95 C/s
1 = 92.80 m
P
o
s
i
t
i
o
n
,

P

=

4
0

m
m



P = 40 mm
VL = 0.44 mm/s
TR = 1.29 C/s
1 = 262.47 m
P
o
s
i
t
i
o
n
,

P

=

7
0

m
m


P = 70 mm
VL = 0.38 mm/s
TR = 0.77 C/s
1 = 347.21 m
Figure 6. Micrographs of unidirectionally solidified analyzed alloy cross section showing the variation in primary
interdendric spacings with the distance from the cooled stainless steel chill. (a) Distance from chill 5 mm, (b) Distance
from chill 40 mm, and (c) Distance from chill 70 mm.



Figure 7. Primary dendrite arm spacing as a function of distance from metal-mold interface.



Figure 8. Primary dendrite arm spacing as a function of tip growth rate.



Figure 9. Primary dendrite arm spacing as a function of tip cooling rate.



0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
10
1
10
2
10
3
Al-6wt.% Cu- 4wt.% Si
Experimental

103 (V
L
)
-1.1
R
2
= 0.89
P
r
i
m
a
r
y

d
e
n
d
r
i
t
e

a
r
m

s
p
a
c
i
n
g
,

m
)
Tip growth rate, V
L
(mm/s)
1 10
10
1
10
2
10
3
Al- 6wt.% Cu- 4wt.% Si
Experimental

1
=303 (T
R
)
-0.55
R
2
=0.98
P
r
i
m
a
r
y

d
e
n
d
r
i
t
e

a
r
m

s
p
a
c
i
n
g
,

1

(

m
)
Tip cooling rate, T
R
(
o
C/s)

4. CONCLUSIONS

The following major conclusions can be drawn from this study, in which Al-6wt.%.-4wt.% Si alloy has been
directionally solidified under unsteady-state heat flow conditions: Primary dendrite arm spacings were observed to
decrease as the tip growth rate or the tip cooling rate is increased. A power law function characterizes the experimental
variation of primary spacings with tip growth rate with an index of 1.1 as well as a 0.55 power law characterizes the
experimental variation of primary spacings with cooling rate. The equations obtained in this work that correlates 1 as a
function of VL and TR, respectively, are given by 1 = 103(VL)
-1.1
and 1 = 303(TR)
0.55
, respectively.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by IFPA (Federal Institute of Education, Science and
Technology of Par), UFPA (Federal University of Par) and CNPq (The Brazilian Research Council), Brazil.


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Li, M.; Mori, T.; Iwasaki, H., 1999, Effect of solute convection on the primary arm spacings of Pb- Sn binary alloys
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