A General Method for Coupling Macro and Micro Phenomena During the Solidification of an Alloy

Abstract

At the macroscopic scale(~ 1m) the thermodynamic state of an alloy casting can be described by the solution of appropriate transport equations. Typically the variables in these equations describe the “mixture” behavior in a Representative Elemental Volume of the two-phase dendritic mushy region. A complete specification of the mixture variables requires a description of the processes occurring at the microscopic scale (~ 100μm) in particular the redistribution of solute in the arm spaces of the dendrites (microsegregation). This paper introduces a general approach for coupling macro and micro scale calculations in an alloy solidification model. A key part of this development is the use of thermodynamic calculation packages.