Experimental analysis of seed effect on the directional solidification of Sn-Pb alloy

In this paper, an experiment model for the directional solidification of Lead/Tin alloy is built and the effects of different-shape seeds on the microstructures on the solidification microstructure are investigated. In a casting process, the temperature and concentration fields will affect the microstructures of materials and this influence is the key point of improving their mechanical and physical properties. It is not easy to control the morphology of solidifying microstructures. The scheme of directional solidification can make the microstructures grow along a fixed direction and it is also the base of single-crystal growth. In the experiment, a poly-grain seed with the same initial concentration of the solidifying casting is used to induce the columnar growth at the bottom portion of the casting, which could avoid the equiaxed growth due to the high undercooling or cooling rate there. In the experimental analysis, we studied the influences of different geometry seeds on the constrained growth, the preferential growth direction of dendrite, the grain size, the temperature gradient, the growth rate, the primary arm spacing and the secondary arm spacing. From the microstructure observation, the adding seed casting reduced the chill-affected and extended the directional solidification zone. This is expected to have the better or more complete structure of directional solidification.