Multiphase-field simulation of grain coalescence behavior and its effects on solidification cracking susceptibility during welding of Al-Cu alloys

[Display omitted] •The grain coalescence behavior and its effects on solidification cracking susceptibility are investigated using the multiphase-field approach.•The transformation of microstructure morphology from cellular to dendritic reduces the solidification cracking susceptibility of grains during solidification.•The grain boundary energy in the solid–solid interface suppresses the grain coalescence and increases the solidification cracking susceptibility of alloys.•The coherency point at the last-stage solidification is achieved accurately. Solidification cracking (SC) is highly related to the grain coalescence behavior during welding of aluminum alloys. In this study, the grain coalescence behavior and its effects on solidification cracking susceptibility (SCS) were investigated using the multiphase-field approach. Why SCS is high at a certain value of Cu concentration and why SC often occurs at high misorientation angles are revealed. Firstly, nominal compositions of Cu affect the morphology of microstructure during solidification. The crystals morphology is cellular at the low concentration, while the crystals are dendritic at the high concentration in the columnar grain region. The SCS of cellular grains is higher than dendrites due to the high volume fraction of solid when the grains/subgrains bridge. Under the action of tensile stress, the scarce residual liquid phase cannot backfill in time. Secondly, high misorientation angles make grain boundary energy in the solid–solid interface (σSS) is high. It is found that σSS suppresses the grain coalescence and increases the SCS of alloys. This leads the emergence of SC at high misorientation angles during welding. In this study, the coalescence behavior of grains during solidification is visually presented by simulation and the coherency point at the last-stage solidification is achieved accurately.