Evaluating Local Primary Dendrite Arm Spacing Characterization Techniques Using Synthetic Directionally Solidified Dendritic Microstructures

Tschopp, M. A., Miller, J. D., Oppedal, A. L., & Solanki, K.N. (2015). Evaluating Local Primary Dendrite Arm Spacing Characterization Techniques Using Synthetic Directionally Solidified Dendritic Microstructures. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A. Springer. 46(10), 4610-4628. DOI:10.1007/s11661-015-2964-7.

Microstructure characterization continues to play an important bridge to understanding why particular processing routes or parameters affect the properties of materials. This statement certainly holds true in the case of directionally solidified dendritic microstructures, where characterizing the primary dendrite arm spacing is vital to developing the process–structure–property relationships that can lead to the design and optimization of processing routes for defined properties. In this work, four series of simulations were used to examine the capability of a few Voronoi-based techniques to capture local microstructure statistics (primary dendrite arm spacing and coordination number) in controlled (synthetically generated) microstructures. These simulations used both cubic and hexagonal microstructures with varying degrees of disorder (noise) to study the effects of length scale, base microstructure, microstructure variability, and technique parameters on the local PDAS distribution, local coordination number distribution, bulk PDAS, and bulk coordination number. The Voronoi tesselation technique with a polygon-side-length criterion correctly characterized the known synthetic microstructures. By systematically studying the different techniques for quantifying local primary dendrite arm spacings, we have evaluated their capability to capture this important microstructure feature in different dendritic microstructures, which can be an important step for experimentally correlating with both processing and properties in single crystal nickel-based superalloys.