Effect of growth rate and lamellar spacing on microhardness in the directionally solidified Pb-Cd, Sn-Zn and Bi-Cd eutectic alloys

Lead-cadmium, Zinc-tin and Bismuth-cadmium of (99.99%) high purity eutectic alloys were melted in a graphite crucible under vacuum atmosphere. These eutectic alloys were directionally solidified upward with a constant temperature gradient G and different growth rates V in the Bridgman type directional solidification furnace. The lamellar spacings λ and microhardness HV were measured from both transverse section and longitudinal section of the specimen. The variations of HV with respect to V and λ have been determined by using the linear regression analysis method. HV values increase with the increasing values of V and decrease with the increasing λ values. The Hall-petch type relationships obtained in this work have been compared with the previous works.