A cellular automaton model for a pure substance solidification with interface reconstruction method

A cellular automaton (CA) model with material interface reconstruction (MIR) technique for pure substance dendritic growth is developed. The present CA model used random zigzag capture rules and MIR technique to reduce the mesh induced anisotropy. MIR technique could reconstruct a smooth and accurate solid–liquid (S/L) interface shape inside the cell of interest, based on the solid fractions of the cell of interest and its neighbors. The temperature field was also interpolated, in order to calculate the growth of the S/L interface inside that cell. The CA model with MIR technique was validated by the comparison with experiment data and theoretical model. It is found that the CA model with MIR technique could use larger mesh size (no larger than 5 μm) and it is able for the CA model to reflect the effects of interfacial energy anisotropy on the simulated dendritic morphology. The mesh induced anisotropy in three-dimensional (3-D) CA model is also discussed.

► We combine material interface reconstruction (MIR) technique with a cellular automaton model.
► In cellular automaton model, we use a random zigzag capture rule.
► The mesh-induce anisotropy is discussed and our method has little mesh-induce anisotropy.
► Based on the improvements, we test the interface energy anisotropy parameter.