EFFECTS OF CONVECTIONS AND MOTIONS OF MINORITY PHASE DROPLETS ON SOLIDIFICATION OF MONOTECTIC ALLOYS

Many alloys show a phase diagram characterized by the appearance of a miscibility gap in the liquid state. Some of them have great potentials to be used in industry. But when a homogeneous, single-phase liquid is cooled into the miscibility gap, the components are no longer miscible and two liquid phases develop. Generally the liquid-liquid decomposition causes the formation of the microstructure with serious segregation. The microstructure evolution during the liquid-liquid phase transformation of monotectic alloys is a result of the common actions of many factors. It is very complex, especially the convection of the matrix and the motion of the minority phase droplets might mix things up and make it extremely difficult to investigate the solidification process of monotectic alloys. In this paper, the effects of convection and minority phase droplet motion on the solidification of monotectic alloys were introduced; the current situation of researches in this field was overviewed.