Thermosolutal convection and macrosegregation during directional solidification of TiAl alloys in centrifugal casting

•The effect of centrifugation on TiAl directional solidification is investigated.•Three-dimensional numerical simulations of solidification were performed.•A one-vortex fluid pattern is produced during solidification under centrifugation.•The aluminum segregation is not axisymmetric under centrifugation. Experiments of directional solidification of TiAl cylindrical samples were conducted within the frame of the ESA GRADECET project. The experiments were performed in the ESA “Large Diameter Centrifuge” using a furnace with a well defined thermal protocol. The furnace was mounted in the centrifuge and free to tilt in such a way that the total apparent gravity (sum of terrestrial gravity and centrifugal acceleration) was aligned to the cylinder centerline. Several centrifugation levels were investigated besides to one reference case out of the centrifuge. In this work, we present 3D numerical simulations of these experiments paying special attention in the liquid thermosolutal buoyancy convection and aluminum macrosegregation. The numerical model accounts for the non-inertial accelerations that appear in the rotating reference frame (centrifugal and Coriolis), motionless solid, themosolutal Boussinesq approximation and an infinitely fast microscopic diffusion model between the phases to depict the solid growth. The results showed that the Coriolis acceleration entirely modifies the liquid flow regime during solidification leading to a 3D aluminum segregation pattern with respect to the case solidified under normal terrestrial gravity conditions. Additionally the magnitude of aluminum segregation increases with the level of centrifugation.