Melting and remelting phenomena

Abstract

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Melting processes influence the microstructure evolution in metal alloys during casting and heat treatments. Melting is often treated as ‘inverse solidification’, which is only appropriate in a limited number of cases. In the present article, asymmetry between solidification and melting is reviewed in detail. The current state of the thermodynamic description of melting under diffusion control is outlined. Kinetic aspects that break the symmetry between solidifi­cation and melting that are discussed are solute partitioning, solute concentration gradients and solute transport in the involved phases. The view on nucleation of liquid and pre-melting phenomena, mostly of pure materials, based on experimental and theoretical work, is given. Emphasis is laid on aspects of melting with technical relevance, i.e. melting of alloys. Particu­larities of thermally and solutally controlled melting are introduced. Mechanisms that involve both melting and solidification simultaneously are capillary driven coarsening, temperature gradient zone melting and liquid film migration. The impact of these processes on microstructural evolution is discussed. Open questions concerning modelling and simulation of melting, namely, the interaction of different melting mechanisms and the role of the solid/liquid inter­face, are identified.

Keywords:

• Melting
• Dissolution
• Solidification
• Microstructure evolution
• Coarsening
• Liquid film migration
• Temperature gradient zone melting
• Dendrite fragmentation