Solidification of Metals

• The solidification of metals and alloys is an important industrial process since

most metals are melted and then cast into semifinished of finished shape.
• When molten alloys are cast, solidification starts at the wallls of the mold

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 1. Solidification of Polycrystalline
•
Material
Almost all engineering crystalline materials are composed of many crystals.
• Two steps of solidification:
1.Nucleation: Formation of stable nuclei in the melt
2.Growth: Crystals grow until they meet each other
Liquid
Nuclei

Crystals Grains
that will
form
grains Grain
boundaries
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 Heterogeneous nucleation

• Heterogeneous nucleation, nucleation with the nucleus at a surface,

is much more common than homogeneous nucleation.
• Heterogeneous nucleation is typically much faster than homogeneous
nucleation because the nucleation barrier ΔG* is much lower at a
surface.
• This is because the nucleation barrier comes from the positive term
in the free energy ΔG, which is the surface term.
• For homogeneous nucleation the nucleus is approximated by a
sphere and so has a free energy equal to the surface area of a sphere,
4πr2, times the surface tension σ.
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 Dendritic growth

• At slow rates of crystal growth, the interface between melt and solid
remains planar, and growth occurs uniformly across the surface.
• At faster rates of crystal growth, instabilities are more likely to occur;
this leads to dendritic growth.
• Solidification releases excess energy in the form of heat at the
interface between solid and melt. At slow growth rates, the heat
leaves the surface by diffusion.
• Rapid growth creates more heat, which is dissipated by convection
(liquid flow) when diffusion is too slow.

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 Planner Growth
• The Temperature of the liquid metal is Greater than the
freezing Temperature of the solid formed is at or below
freezing Temperature.
• The latent heat of fusion must be removed by condition from
solid – liquid interface through the solid.

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 Solidification time
• scientist relates the solidification time for a simple casting to
the volume and surface area of the casting.
•  In simple terms the rule establishes that under otherwise identical
conditions, the casting with large surface area and small volume will
cool more rapidly than a casting with small surface area and a large
volume.
• The relationship can be written as
t = B * ( V / A )^n

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 Shrinkage Defect
• Shrinkage defects can occur when standard feed metal is not
available to compensate for shrinkage as the thick metal solidifies.
• Shrinkage defects can be split into two different types: open
shrinkage defects and closed shrinkage defects.
• Open shrinkage defects are open to the atmosphere therefore as the
shrinkage cavity forms air compensates.
• There are two types of open air defects: pipes and caved surfaces.
Pipes form at the surface of the casting and burrow into the casting,
while caved surfaces are shallow cavities that form across the surface
of the casting
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Shrinkage Defect Gas Porosity

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 Gas porosity

1. To prevent gas porosity the material may be melted in a vacuum, in

an environment of low-solubility gases, such as argon or carbon
dioxide or under a flux that prevents contact with the air.
2. To minimize gas solubility the superheat temperatures can be kept
low. Turbulence from pouring the liquid metal into the mold can
introduce gases, so the molds are often streamlined to minimize
such turbulence.
3. Other methods include vacuum degassing, gas flushing, or
precipitation. Precipitation involves reacting the gas with another
element to form a compound that will form a dross that floats to
the top.

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4. For instance, oxygen can be removed from copper by
adding phosphorus; aluminum or silicon can be added to steel to
remove oxygen.
5. A third source consists of reactions of the molten metal with grease
or other residues in the mold.
6. Hydrogen is normally produced by the reaction of the metal with
humidity or residual moisture in the mold. Drying the mold can
eliminate this source of hydrogen formation

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•END.

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