Cellular automaton simulation of the growth of anomalous eutectic during laser remelting process

Anomalous eutectic morphologies were observed during laser remelting of a Ni-Sn powder bed, where it was sandwiched between a lamellar eutectic at the bottom of melt pool. That is, the anomalous eutectic growth mechanism can be divided into two processes: one is the lamellar to anomalous transition (LAT); the other is the anomalous to lamellar transition (ALT). The thermal distribution at the bottom of melt pool is simulated by the finite difference method. It is found that the cooling rate at the bottom of melt pool is a linear function of time. A cellular automaton (CA) model is developed to simulate the anomalous growth. Simulation results show that the mechanism of the LAT is that one phase overgrows the other followed by subsequent nucleating of the other phase. The mechanism of the ALT is the competitive growth between the anomalous and lamellar eutectic; as the cooling rate increased, the lamellar eutectic is more competitive.