Cellular and dendritic solidification of AlLi alloys during the D2-mission

Cellular solidification is one of the major techniques to produce engineering components, since a close control of the microstructure and thus the properties of the material is allowed. During the D2-mission, directional solidification of AlLi alloys was carried out to study the influence of convection in the liquid phase on the deep cell-dendrite transition and to establish the precise correlation between the interfacial microstructure and the processing parameters. Six samples have been solidified corresponding to different destabilization levels: three alloys in the GFQ and three other in the GHF. By using statistical tools /1/, the primary spacing of the microstructure is calculated. Macrosegregation is determined by chemical analysis.