A quantitative cellular automaton model is used to study the cell-to-dendrite transition（CDT） in directional solidification. We give a detailed description of the CDT by carefully examining the influence of the physical parameters, including：the Gibbs–Thomson coefficient Γ, the solute diffusivity Dl, the solute partition coefficient k0, and the liquidus slope ml. It is found that most of the parameters agree with the Kurz and Fisher（KF） criterion, except for k0. The intrinsic relations among the critical velocity Vcd, the cellular primary spacing λc,max, and the critical spacing λcd are investigated.
Crystal orientation influences the morphological stability of solid–liquid interface during directional solidification of alloy, resulting in the variation of solidified microstructure. In this paper, the morphological evolution near grain boundary grooves（GBGs） with different crystal orientations in a dilute succinonitrile alloy under low temperature gradient and interface velocity is observed in situ. Under experimental conditions, the macroscopic solid–liquid interface is planar and keeps stable, while in GBGs there emerge protrusion and undulation. It is found that the morphological stability of GBG is dependent on crystal orientation. Specifically, for succinonitrile with a body-centered cubic crystal structure, GBGs around the 100 crystal orientation keep stable, while those apart from the 100 crystal orientation become unstable under the same conditions. So it is concluded that 100 crystal orientation favors the morphological stability of GBG.
The effect of the heating rate on the nucleation of metallic glass in a rapid heating process starting from the glass transition temperature is investigated. The critical nucleus radius increases with the increase of the temperature of the undercooling liquid. If the increment rate of the critical nucleus radius, owing to the heating process, is higher than the growth rate of the nuclei, the nuclei generated at the low temperature will become the embryos at the high temperature. This means that the high heating rate can make no nucleation happen in the heating process. In consideration of the interfacial energy, the growth rate of the nuclei increases with the increase of their size and the growth rate of the critical nucleus is zero. Thus, the lower heating rate can also make the nuclei decline partially. Finally, this theory is used to analyze the nucleation process during laser remelting metallic glass.
