Dendritic solidification of Succinonitrile-0.24 wt% water alloy: A comparison with microgravity experiments for validating dendrite tip velocity

The Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation at the International Space Station provided information on the morphological evolution during remelting and directional solidification under microgravity conditions for Succinonitrile-0.24 wt% water binary alloys. Unlike the terrestrial experiments where the growth is affected by natural convection, constrained diffusive growth is observed in the microgravity experiments. This study aims to provide an experimental benchmark of dendritic growth applicable for validation of theoretical and numerical dendrite growth models. The results of the experiment were compared with the cellular automata and the phase field models, which are two classes of numerical methods widely used by scholars in the field of dendritic solidification, in both two and three dimensions. The resulting morphologies and tip velocities from the models were compared with the Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation experimental results. The combination of experimental and simulation results shows fair agreement and together can be used as a benchmark solution for tip velocity and evolution of dendritic microstructures. •A validation benchmark for dendrite growth in microgravity conditions is presented.•The experimental results are compared with two numerical models.•Both numerical models were able to successfully predict the dendrite tip velocity.