SOLIDIFICATION OF

METALS

Material Engineerings Department

Solidification of a pure
metal.

2
Cooling curve for a pure metal
showing possible undercooling.

3
Nucleation and Growth of Crystals

4
 Nucleation and Growth
Transformation
• Nucleation

• Growth

5
Nucleation and Growth of Crystals

a)Nucleation of crystals, b) crystal growth, c)

irregular grains form as crystals grow together,
d) grain boundaries as seen in a microscope.

6
 Cooling Curve
• Then these temperatures are used for the construction of
the phase diagrams

7
Solidification of Solid Solution Alloys
Nickel-Copper Alloy Phase Diagram
9
Cooling Curve for Metals

10
 Nucleation and Growth
Transformation
• The Nucleation and Growth Transformation may be
of two types
• 1. Homogeneous Nucleation
• 2. Heterogeneous Nucleation

11
Heterogeneous Transformation
• In practice, homogeneous nucleation rarely takes
place and heterogeneous nucleation occurs either
on the mould walls or on insoluble impurity
particles.
• A reduction in the interfacial energy would
facilitate nucleation at small values of ∆T.
• This occurs at a mould wall or pre-existing solid
particle

12
13
Chill-cast ingot structure

14
Ingot Structure

Al ingot

15
Nucleation and Growth
Transformation in solid
solution

16
 Nucleation and Growth
Transformation in solid
solution
T(°C) L (liquid) L: 35wt%Ni

130 0 A
L: 35 wt% Ni
a: 46 wt% Ni B
35 46
32 C 43
24 D36 L: 32 wt% Ni
a: 43 wt% Ni
120 0 E L: 24 wt% Ni
a: 36 wt% Ni
a
(solid)
110 0
20 30 35 40 50
C0 wt% Ni
17
 Nucleation and Growth
Transformation
• The factors which determine the rate of phase
change are:
• (1) the rate of nucleation, N (i.e. the number of
nuclei formed in unit volume in unit time) and
• (2) the rate of growth, G (i.e. the rate of increase in
radius with time)

18
 Dendrites
• In metals, the crystals that form in the liquid during freezing
generally follow a pattern consisting of a main branch with many
appendages. A crystal with this morphology slightly resembles a
pine tree and is called a dendrite, which means branching.
• The formation of dendrites occurs because crystals grow in
defined planes due to the crystal lattice they create.
• The figure to the right shows how a cubic crystal can grow in a
melt in three dimensions, which correspond to the six faces of the
cube.
• For clarity of illustration, the adding of unit cells with continued
solidification from the six faces is shown simply as lines.
• Secondary dendrite arms branch off the primary arm, and tertiary
arms off the secondary arms and etcetera.

19
Dendrites

20
 Dendrites
• During freezing of a polycrystalline material, many
dendritic crystals form and grow until they eventually
become large enough to impinge upon each other.
• Eventually, the interdendriticspaces between the
dendrite arms crystallize to yield a more regular crystal.
• The original dendritic pattern may not be apparent
when examining the microstructure of a material.
• However, dendrites can often be seen in solidification
voids that sometimes occur in castings or welds, as
shown in the next slide..

21
Dendrites

22
Computer simulated image of dendritic growth using a
cellular automata technique. Notice the branching on the
dendrites. Photograph courtesy of the Institute of Materials,
based on the work of U. Dilthey, V. Pavlik and T. Reichel,
Mathematical Modelling of Weld Phenomena III, eds H.
Cerjak and H. Bhadeshia, Institute of Materials, 1997.

23
 Steady-state patterns formed at the crystal–melt interface of a binary alloy of succinonitrile
and coumarin 152 during directional solidification.

Losert W et al. PNAS 1998;95:431-438

24
©1998 by National Academy of Sciences
 (A) Time evolution of the interface morphology for SCN/rhodamine 6G at constant pulling
speed V (V = 3.11 μm/s, G = 2.8 K/cm, C∞ = 0.325 wt%).

Losert W et al. PNAS 1998;95:431-438

25
©1998 by National Academy of Sciences
 Shrinkage
• Most materials contract or shrink during solidification and cooling.
Shrinkage is the result of:
• Contraction of the liquid as it cools prior to its solidification
• Contraction during phase change from a liquid to solid
• Contraction of the solid as it continues to cool to ambient temperature.
• Shrinkage can sometimes cause cracking to occur in component as it
solidifies.
• Since the coolest area of a volume of liquid is where it contacts a mold
or die, solidification usually begins first at this surface.
• As the crystals grow inward, the material continues to shrink.
• If the solid surface is too rigid and will not deform to accommodate the
internal shrinkage, the stresses can become high enough to exceed the
tensile strength of the material and cause a crack to form.
• Shrinkage cavitation sometimes occurs because as a material solidifies
inward, shrinkage occurred to such an extent that there is not enough
atoms present to fill the available space and a void is left.

26