Competitive Growth of Degenerate Pattern and Dendrites During Directional Solidification of a Bicrystal Metallic Alloy

A degenerate pattern is seaweed-like morphology with its tip splitting continuously, differing from that the regular dendrite has a stable tip. Here, we carried out bicrystal (BC)-assembled experiments to investigate the competitive growth between a degenerate pattern and regular dendrites in a directionally solidified Al-4.5 wt pct Cu alloy. Using the electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) technique, we characterized a degenerate pattern that solidified with a (100)[001]_45 deg orientation and a dendrite growth comprising (100)[001]_0 deg or (100)[001]_15 deg orientations. The experimental results for the competitive growth show that the dendrites could overgrow the degenerate pattern completely at V = 15 and 25 µm/s. The grain boundary (GB) in between these two morphologies is not smooth, and its inclination angle θ_GB is slightly increased with an increase in the growth velocity. For the converging GBs, we find that the dendrites overgrow the degenerate pattern either by generating new primary arm dendrites through tertiary branching or being blocked by the growth of the existing primary arm dendrites, depending on the misorientation arrangement between these two morphologies. The limited growth stability of the degenerate pattern in comparison with the dendrite contributes to deepening the understanding of why the degenerate pattern is not widely prevailing in metallic alloy solidification microstructures.