Modeling of dendrite growth from undercooled nickel melt: sharp interface model versus enthalpy method.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Solidification Physics
• Computational Materials Science

Background:

• Dendritic growth is fundamental to understanding material solidification processes.
• Accurate prediction of dendritic morphology is crucial for controlling material properties.
• Existing numerical models face challenges in simulating growth over wide undercooling ranges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce an advanced two-dimensional stability criterion for dendritic growth.
• To assess the viability of the enthalpy method for simulating solidification.
• To accurately predict dendritic growth behavior across a broad spectrum of undercooling.

Main Methods:

• Development of an advanced definition for the 2D stability criterion.
• Implementation and validation of the enthalpy method as a numerical model.
• Introduction of an adaptive cell size technique to mitigate numerical errors in the enthalpy method.

Main Results:

• The study presents an advanced stability criterion for dendritic growth.
• The enthalpy method, enhanced with adaptive cell sizing, demonstrates viability for solidification simulations.
• Excellent agreement was achieved between the numerical results and analytic theory for pure nickel solidification.

Conclusions:

• The refined enthalpy method accurately predicts dendritic growth over a wide range of undercooling.
• The adaptive cell size method effectively addresses 'narrow-band features' in numerical simulations.
• This work provides a robust computational tool for studying solidification phenomena.