Effects of magnetic energy on microstructural evolution during peritectic solidification in ferromagnetic alloy investigated by phase-field simulation

Abstract

Abstract A modified phase-field model was proposed for the incorporation of magnetic energy contributions in the ferromagnetic alloys including Zeeman energy, magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy and demagnetizing field energy. To verify the accuracy of this model, the Mn–Bi system was taken as an example, and the effects of different magnetic energy contributions on the microstructural evolution during the non-equilibrium peritectic reaction (Liquid + Mn1.08Bi → MnBi) were investigated. The simulation results demonstrated that the formation of ferromagnetic MnBi was promoted by the introduction of the Zeeman energy, and the magnetic moments of the MnBi phase tended to align along the orientation of the easy axis due to the effect of magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy. It was also indicated that the MnBi grain would be elongated along the direction of the external magnetic field when the demagnetizing field is considered.