Numerical simulation of 3D-microstructures in solidification processes based on the CAFE method

It was analyzed that the finite element-cellular automaton （CAFE） method was used to simulate 3D-microstructures in solidification processes. Based on this method, the 3D-microstructure of 9SMn28 free-cutting steel was simulated in solidification processes and the simulation results are consistent with the experimental ones. In addition, the effects of Gaussian distribution parameters were also studied. The simulation results show that the higher the mean undercooling, the larger the columnar dendrite zones, and the larger the maximum nucleation density, the smaller the size of grains. The larger the standard deviation, the less the number of minimum grains is. However, the uniformity degree decreases first, and then increases gradually.