Two-dimensional phase-field simulations of dendrite competitive growth during the directional solidification of a binary alloy bicrystal

We investigated the competitive growth of dendrites at the converging grain boundaries (GBs) of bicrystals during the directional solidification of an Al–Cu alloy by means of two-dimensional phase-field simulations. In particular, the focus was on the recently observed phenomenon of unusual overgrowth during the directional solidification of a Ni-based superalloy, where the favorably oriented (FO) dendrites are overgrown by the unfavorably oriented (UO) ones. The phase-field simulations were accelerated by parallel computations on graphics processing units. The simulation results showed that unusual overgrowth occurs in Al–Cu alloys, indicating that this phenomenon is a common one in metallic materials. It was also concluded that the differences in the diffusion layers in front of the FO and UO dendrites had a dominant effect on the competitive growth of dendrites at the converging GB as well as on the unusual overgrowth. In addition, unusual overgrowth was observed in all the FO dendrites with a spacing that allowed the dendrite array to grow stably without necessitating a change in the number of dendrites. The FO dendrite at the GB is overgrown by the UO dendrite when the spacing between the FO dendrite at the GB and the next FO dendrite is approximately equal to the critical minimum spacing. However, the unusual overgrowth was not observed for UO dendrites with a large inclination angle. In this case, all the UO dendrites are blocked by the FO dendrite at the GB, and the FO dendrites migrate toward the UO dendrites.