Dendrite growth morphologies in rapidly solidified Al-4.5wt.%Cu droplets

The impulse atomization process developed at the University of Alberta (Canada) enables metallic powders to be solidified with controlled process parameters and improved properties. In order to investigate the microstructure morphologies in droplets of Al- 4.5wt.%Cu alloys, three-dimensional reconstructions of several droplets are obtained by using synchrotron X-ray micro-tomography, allowing a visualization of the inner microstructure in three dimensions. The analysis of the reconstructed volumes reveals that a wide range of morphology, from highly branched to "finger-bundle", can be obtained for different droplets of similar diameter and produced in the same batch. Unexpectedly for this alloy, microstructural features also indicate that the development of the dendrite arms (primary and of higher orders) occurs in most droplets along <111> crystallographic axes, instead of the usual <100> directions observed in conventional casting technologies. (paper)