A FIXED GRID FRONT-TRACKING MODEL OF THE GROWTH OF A COLUMNAR FRONT AND AN EQUIAXED GRAIN DURING SOLIDIFICATION OF AN ALLOY

Abstract

In a new model of alloy solidification in a square mold, the interface being followed by a front-tracking technique is representative of a curve joining the tips of growing solid dendrites. The coupled heat equation is solved via an Eulerian control-volume formulation. In the absence of convection, the nucleation and nonequilibrium growth of both a front of columnar grains and a single equiaxed grain have been modeled and animated. This is a major step toward the computationally efficient complete direct numerical simulation of the developing grain structure in a casting process.

The authors are grateful to Materials Ireland for provision of funding for this work.