Method for Predicting Microsegregation-Free Solidification With Application to Ag--Cu Alloys

Melting the surface of Ag--Cu specimens with a laser or electron beam produces a variety of microstructures, the most interesting being a banded structure. In this letter a method, based on the interface response functions for solidification developed by Aziz and Kaplan, is presented for calculating the scanning velocity of the beam needed to bypass the banded structure and solidify the alloy in a microsegregation -free manner. When this velocity has been determined experimentally, as in the present Ag--Cu system, the width of the solid/liquid interface can be estimated.