Investigation into the effect of nucleation parameters on grain formation during solidification using a cellular automaton-finite control volume method

A cellular automation (CA) model has successfully been used to model the development of microstructure of an aluminum alloy during solidification to produce detailed structure maps for the solidified alloys. More recently, the application of CA models to practical castings/ solidification conditions has attracted increasing research interest. However, the determination of the calculation parameters of any model associated with nucleation is difficult. Accordingly, this work investigates the detailed effect of the six parameters of nucleation on microstructure formation and morphology as well as the grain size by cellular automaton-finite control volume method (CAFVM). The nucleation parameters can be determined or estimated by comparing the calculated and experimental results, which enables a more practical prediction of the microstructure (morphology and grain size).