Microstructural evolution during containerless rapid solidification of Ni-Mo eutectic alloys

Ni-45%Mo hypoeutectic, Ni-47.7%Mo eutectic and Ni-50%Mo hypereutectic alloys are rapidly solidified during containerless processing in drop tube. The microstructures of Ni-47.7%Mo eutectic alloy are composed of lamellar eutectic plus anomalous eutectic of Ni and NiMo phases. When the droplet size decreases, the volume fraction of anomalous eutectic becomes larger. The structural morphology transforms into Ni dendrite plus lamellar eutectic in very small droplets which are highly undercooled. The microstructures of Ni-45%Mo hypoeutectic alloy are characterized by primary Ni dendrite plus lamellar eutectic, whereas those of Ni-50%Mo hypereutectic alloy consist of NiMo dendrite plus lamellar eutectic. For both off-eutectic alloys, the experimental results show that the microstructure evolution depends mainly on droplet size. In the case of Ni-45%Mo hypoeutectic alloy, with the decrease of droplet size, the primary Ni phase transforms from dendrites to equiaxed grains. As for Ni-50%Mo hypereutectic alloy, when droplets become smaller and smaller the microstructural transition proceeds from primary NiMo dendrite plus lamellar eutectic to anomalous eutectic. The calculated highest undercoolings of the three alloys are 226, 182 and 135 K, respectively. By classical nucleation theory, Ni phase is the primary phase to nucleate for Ni-47.7%Mo eutectic alloy. The TMK eutectic growth and LKT/BCT dendritic growth theories are applied to analyze the rapid solidification process and investigate the microstructural transition mechanisms. The coupled zone of Ni-Mo eutectic alloy has also been calculated on the basis of TMK and LKT/BCT models, which covers a composition range from 45.7% to 57.1% Mo.