The interactive dynamics of flow and directional solidification in a Hele-Shaw cell Part 1. Experimental investigation of parallel shear flow

It is recognized that flow in the melt can have a profound influence on the dynamics of a solidifying interface and hence on the quality of the solidified material. To better understand the effect of fluid flow on the interface morphological stability and on the cellular and dendritic growth, directional solidification experiments were carried out in a horizontally placed Hele-Shaw cell with and without externally imposed parallel shear flow. The specimen material used was SCN-1.0Wt% acetone. The experiment shows that the transient parallel flow has a stabilizing effect on the planar interface by damping the existing initial perturbations. The left-right symmetry of crystal cells was broken by the parallel flow, with cells tilting toward the incoming flow direction. The tilting angle increased with the velocity ratio. The secondary dendrites were found to either not appear or appear much later on the downstream side of the crystal cells. The wavelengths of the initial perturbations and of the cellular interface were insensitive to the imposed flow.