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Acta Materialia, Volume 60, Issue 16, September 2012, Pages 5925-5932
D. Montiel, L. Liu, L. Xiao, Y. Zhou, N. Provatas
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4L7
Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G1
Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2T8
Abstract
We use phase-field models to characterize the microstructure present in magnesium AZ31 alloy solidified under welding conditions. We focus our attention on the study of the conditions under which a columnar-to-equiaxed transition (CET) is observed in resistance spot welds. Our simulations show how the size and shape of the columnar and equiaxed regions depend on factors such as cooling rate, temperature gradient and the nature of inoculant particles. Our results are compared with experimental observations. In addition, we contrast our findings with predictions from a previously developed steady-state model for the CET.
