Solidification of Undercooled Liquid under Supergravity Field by Phase-Field Crystal Approach

Abstract

Solidification under a supergravity field is an effective method to control the solidified microstructure, which can be used to prepare materials with excellent comprehensive properties. In order to explore the influence of supergravity on the solidification behavior, a phase-field crystal model for the solidification under supergravity fields is developed and utilized to study the supergravity-controlled solidification behaviors. The results show that the grains in the solidification structures are refined in a supergravity field. The grain size in a zero-gravity field is uniformly distributed in the sample, but gradually decreases along the direction of the supergravity, showing a graded microstructure. The simulations show real-time images of the nucleation and growth of grains during solidification. In a supergravity field, solidification occurs preferentially in the liquid subject to greater gravity and advances in the opposite direction of supergravity with the time evolution. In addition, the driving force of crystallization in liquid is calculated to explain the effect of the supergravity field on the solidification structure from a thermodynamic point of view. Our findings are expected to provide a new approach and insight for understanding the solidification behaviors under supergravity.