Abstract
A multicomponent two-phase model was established to describe the macro/micro-transportation and the freckle formation during solidification, and the dynamic mesh algorithm was applied to perform the filling process during the vacuum arc remelting (VAR). Firstly, the thermodynamic calculation approach was used to evaluate the liquid composition with the variation of solid fraction during solidification, and the interdendritic liquid density of multicomponent alloys was obtained. Then, the freckle formed during the horizontal directional solidification was simulated and compared with the experiment one to study the freckle formation mechanism and influence factor. Finally, the developed model was used to investigate the influence of process parameters on the freckle formation in the industrial-scale VAR casting. Results show that the element composition has a significant effect on the density change of liquid phase during the solidification. The freckle forms with a high thermosolutal convection strength. The growth direction of freckles is determined by the liquid density difference and the angle between solidified interface and gravity direction. It is also found that the molten pool profile is affected by the electrode melting rate and cooling rate during VAR.
Science Press
Superalloys are widely used in critical components, such as aero-engines, aerospace gas turbines, and other high temperature part
The freckles are considered as the macrosegregation defects caused by the flow of solute-rich interdendritic liquid in the mushy zone during the solidification process, which is related to the shape of mushy zone and the density of liquid phase. Based on the metallurgical morphology, it is generally believed that the freckles are a type of channel segregation. Copley et a
The freckles formed in VAR ingots are usually distributed along the shape of molten poo
The channel segregation with negative density difference, such as A-type segregation in steel ingot
In this research, a multicomponent two-phase model was established, and the freckles of IN718 alloy were studied in horizontal directional solidification and VAR processes.

Fig.1 Schematic diagrams of VAR process (a) and horizontal directional solidification (b); geometric model of VAR system (c)
The horizontal directional solidification was conducte
Fe | Cr | Al | Ti | Nb | Mo | C | B | Ni |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
18.5 | 19.0 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 5.1 | 3.0 | 0.04 | 0.002 | Bal. |
A multicomponent two-phase model was established to investigate the physical transportation between solid and liquid phases in the mushy region. For the VAR process of industrial-size ingots, the grain structure is mainly composed of columnar crystal
(1) |
(2) |
(3) |
(4) |
Symbol | Meaning |
---|---|
ρ | Density |
t | Time |
kl | Thermal conductivity of liquid phase |
kc | Thermal conductivity of columnar crystal |
Tl | Temperature of liquid phase |
Tc | Temperature of columnar crystal |
ul | Phase velocity of liquid phase |
uc | Phase velocity of columnar crystal |
hl | Enthalpy of liquid phase |
hc | Enthalpy of columnar crystal |
Q | Interfacial enthalpy flux of liquid phase |
Q | Interfacial enthalpy flux of columnar crystal |
p | Pressure |
g | Gravity |
| Approximate density |
ρref | Reference density |
Klc | Drag force |
Dl | Diffusion coefficient of liquid phase |
Dc | Diffusion coefficient of columnar crystal |
CD | Drag coefficient |
Rs | Radius of columnar crystal |
ds | Diameter of columnar crystal |
Cl,i | Solute composition of liquid phase |
Cc,i | Solute composition of columnar crystal |
Cl, | Interfacial solute composition of liquid phase |
Cc, | Interfacial solute composition of columnar crystal |
βT | Temperature expansion coefficient |
βc,i | Solute expansion coefficient |
Tref | Reference temperature |
Cref | Reference solute composition |
xi | Molar fraction |
A | Atomic weight |
V | Molar volume |
H | Reference height of mushy zone |
where the subscript c indicates the columnar phase; the subscript l indicates the liquid phase; Γcl indicates the phase transfer rate from columnar phase to liquid phase during the melting process; Γlc indicates the phase transfer rate from liquid phase to columnar phase during the solidification process. The columnar crystal phase is assumed to be solidified from the cooling wall to form the bulk and it is static after the bulk formation. Thus, the velocity term in
(5) |
The growth rate vR of solid dendrite is part of phase transfer rate Γlc, and it was modified with coefficient δ, as follows:
(6) |
The drag force Klc between liquid and solid phases is defined by
(7) |
The multicomponent calculation was introduced into the solute conservation equation and the species transfer process of each element was established through the phase diagrams.
(8) |
(9) |
The Boussinesq approximation with multicomponent calculation was adopted to express the density.
] | (10) |
The physical properties of IN718 superalloy were calculated by the thermodynamic software JmatPro, and the relative density Δρ of the liquid phase was further calculated by
(11) |
where i indicates the element with specific content; Δ
(12) |
In VAR process, the molten metal dropped into the water-cooled copper mold and solidified into a new ingot. The dynamic mesh algorithm was applied to the governing equations to calculate the filling process of the liquid metal during VAR process. The time derivative terms were discretized by the first-order backward difference method. The integral form of the conservation equation for the general scalar φ on the arbitrary control volume V can be expressed by
(13) |
where ρ is the fluid density, u is the flow velocity vector, ug is the velocity of moving mesh, Γ is the diffusion coefficient, Sφ is the source term of φ.
The simulations were performed under a volume-averaged frame with semi-implicit method for pressure linked equation (SIMPLE) algorithm. The related material parameters are listed in
Parameter | Value |
---|---|
Density, ρ/kg· | 7491 |
Melting temperature of Ni, Tm/K | 1728 |
Liquidus temperature, Tliq/K | 1609 |
Solidus temperature, Tsol/K | 1533 |
Latent heat, L/J·k |
2.72×1 |
Specific heat, cp/J·k | 620 |
Thermal conductivity, k/W· | 25 |
Liquid viscosity, μl/kg· |
1×1 |
Liquid solute diffusion coefficient, Dl/ |
1.0×1 |
Solid solute diffusion coefficient, Ds/ |
3.0×1 |
Initial temperature, T0/K | 1800 |
Thermal expansion coefficient, βT/ |
1.2×1 |
Solute expansion coefficient, βc,i/wt | -0.2 |
Primary dendrite arm spacing, λ1/m |
1.3×1 |
Initial concentration of Nb, C0,Nb/wt% | 5.1 |
Initial concentration of Ti, C0,Ti/wt% | 0.9 |
Liquidus slope of Nb, ml,Nb/K·wt | -1090.0 |
Liquidus slope of Ti, ml,Ti/K·wt | -1102.0 |
Solute partition coefficient of Nb, kp,Nb | 0.48 |
Solute partition coefficient of Ti, kp,Ti | 0.91 |
The local thermodynamic equilibrium was used to calculate the connection between liquid composition and temperature/solid fraction during solidification. The fluctuation of element composition and liquid density difference with solid phase fraction of IN718 superalloy is shown in

Fig.2 Relationships of liquid density difference ∆ρ (a) and element contents (b) with solid phase fraction during solidification of IN718 superalloy
The transportation and macrosegregation of components during the horizontal directional solidification of IN718 superalloy in the rectangular cavity with dimension of 220 mm×140 mm (

Fig.3 Fluid streamlines (a, c) and local flow vectors (b, d) of IN718 superalloy after horizontal directional solidification for 300 s (a, b) and 500 s (c, d)

Fig.4 Nb (a) and Ti (b) element distributions in IN718 superalloy after horizontal directional solidification for 700 s
The simulated channel and freckle formation mechanism were analyzed and compared with the experiment result

Fig.5 Simulated Nb element distribution after solidification for 1500 s (a); experiment result of freckle formation in IN718 superalloy ingo

Fig.6 Schematic diagrams of formation mechanism of channels (a) and freckles (b) with positive density difference in liquid
Segregation element | Experiment | Simulation |
---|---|---|
Nb | 9.43 | 10.10 |
Ti | 1.33 | 1.24 |
The molten pool profile of IN718 superalloy ingot with melting rate of 0.083 kg/s is obtained by simulation and compared with the results in Ref.[

Fig.7 Comparison between simulated and experiment molten pool profiles of IN718 superalloy ingot with melting rate of 0.083 kg/s (the dashed line indicates the calculated molten pool shape; the solid line indicates experimental molten pool shape)

Fig.8 Solidification sequence of IN718 superalloy ingot with melting rate of 0.409 kg/s after solidification for 500 s (a), 1000 s (b), 1500 s (c), and 2000 s (d)

Fig.9 Nb element distributions of simulated (a) and experimental (b) freckles in IN718 superalloy ingots
It is estimated that the channel formation depends on the strength of thermosolutal convection. The modified Rayleigh number (Ramodified) along the radius in mushy zone is applied to predict the channel tendency, as shown in

Fig.10 Modified Rayleigh number in mushy zone along radius direction of IN718 superalloy ingot with melting rate of 0.409 kg/s
According to

Fig.11 Solidification states of IN718 superalloy ingots after solidification for 2000 s with different melting rates: (a) 0.306 kg/s, (b) 0.409 kg/s, and (c) 0.765 kg/s
When the cooling conditions are fixed, the slower the solidification, the longer the duration for the channel formation and development (

Fig.12 Nb contents at height of 300 mm of IN718 superalloy ingot with different melting rates after solidification for 2000 s
The cooling conditions can also affect the molten pool shape. Different heat transfer coefficients (H1 and H2 with H2=2H1) are applied with fixed calculation parameters.

Fig.13 Solidification states of IN718 superalloy ingots after solidification for 1500 s with melting rate of 0.409 kg/s and heat transfer coefficient of H1 (a) and H2 (b)
transfer coefficient, i.e., the cooling rate has slight influence on the number of freckles, but it significantly changes the growing direction of freckles.
The fast cooling process results in the shallow molten pool, therefore leading to the large angle between the molten pool profile and the gravity direction (α2>α1). The typical channels are marked by the dashed lines in
1) A multicomponent two-phase model was established to simulate the solidification of IN718 superalloy during vacuum arc remelting (VAR) process. The model including the columnar crystal phase and liquid phase describes the solid-liquid interaction coupling macro-transportation and micro-flux at solidification front with thermodynamics.
2) The segregation elements in IN718 superalloy ingot contribute to the positive density difference, therefore leading to the downward interdendritic flow.
3) The freckles tend to develop at the early solidification stage. The high melting rate can achieve the deep molten pool and promote the freckle formation, which causes the serious macrosegregation. The fast cooling process can reach the stable solidification early but results in the large macrosegregation. Both melting rate and cooling rate have apparent influence on the growing direction and formation position of freckles.
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