Eutectic Growth of Unidirectionally Solidified Fe–Cr–Ni Alloy

In this report, transition of solidified phases in unidirectionally solidified Fe–Cr–Ni alloys was investigated in low growth rate range using Bridgman type furnace. The ferrite-austenite eutectic growth was confirmed under low growth rate condition like a plane front growth of ferrite single phases. The transition velocity between eutectic and ferrite cell growth had a good agreement with the result of calculation based on the phase selection criterion and the interface temperature calculation for ferrite, austenite and eutectic phases. These results show that the phase prediction by calculating interface temperature can be applied not only to competitive growth between single phases like peritectic systems, but also to eutectic systems. Furthermore, under the condition of eutectic coupled growth to be occurred in steady state, the changes of solidified phases and their morphologies in the initial transient are also discussed.