Effect of Solidification Direction on the Freckle Formation in Single-Crystal Superalloy Castings

Solidification experiments in two opposite directions were conducted to investigate the buoyancy effect on freckle formation during directional solidification in single-crystal superalloy castings. During conventional upward solidification with the superalloy CMSX-4, severe freckles were observed in castings of various geometries. By reversing the solidification direction from upward to downward, freckle-free castings could be obtained. To visually verify the effect of the solidification direction, an in situ observation experiment by varying the solidification direction was performed using a Ga-In alloy. In the upward solidification process, strong solutal convection was visually observed due to the decrease in the density of the interdendritic liquid. Conversely, a stable condition without visible flow was established during downward solidification, due to the stable state of the top-light, bottom-heavy liquid system. A new Rayleigh-number model was successfully applied to characterize the freckle features in superalloy cluster castings. When the solidification direction was reversed from upward to downward, the driving force for solutal convection was suppressed, leading to the complete elimination of freckle formation in single-crystal superalloy castings.