Journal of Alloys and Compounds 620 (2015) 1017

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Journal of Alloys and Compounds

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jalcom

Effect of a high magnetic eld on microstructures of Ni-based superalloy

during directional solidication
Weidong Xuan , Zhongming Ren, Chuanjun Li
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Modern Metallurgy & Materials Processing, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 14 July 2014
Received in revised form 7 September 2014
Accepted 13 September 2014
Available online 20 September 2014
Keywords:
Nickel-based superalloy
High magnetic eld
Directional solidication
Microstructure
Columnar to equiaxed transition
Primary dendrite arm spacing

a b s t r a c t
The effect of a high magnetic eld on the dendrite morphology of superalloy DZ417G during directional
solidication at a low solidication velocity has been investigated experimentally. It was found that the
magnetic eld induces columnar to equiaxed transition (CET) and makes the primary dendrite arm spacing decrease. In addition, the magnetic eld causes deformation of the solidliquid interface shape and
the macrosegregation in the mushy zone. Based on these results, it was found that both of the thermoelectric magnetic convection (TEMC) and the thermoelectric magnetic force (TEMF) cause CET, the change
of solidliquid interface shape and the formation of macrosegregation. This is in good agreement with
predicted values of the TEMC and TEMF, respectively. The primary dendrite arm spacing was changed
by the interdendritic TEMC in the magnetic eld.
2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In the past decades, directional solidication (DS) technology
has been widely used to the production of turbine blades of Nibased superalloy with complex geometries. The aims of directional
solidication turbine blades are to produce a columnar dendrite
structure along the [0 0 1] orientation growth because Ni-based
superalloys have the most favorable mechanical properties at the
[0 0 1] orientation compared with other orientations. Therefore,
the columnar dendrite arm spacing (primary dendrite arm spacing)
plays a main role in determining the mechanical properties of
DS turbine blades [1,2]. In industrial production, DS turbine
blades are usually obtained by Bridgman high rate solidication
technology [3]. However, limited temperature gradient resulting
from Bridgman high rate solidication technology results in
coarse-dendrite and serious element segregation, which signicantly inuence the mechanical properties of DS turbine blades [1].
In order to obtain a good mechanical property of DS turbine
blades, many techniques have been developed to rene dendrite
and decrease element segregation, such as liquid metal cooling
(LMC) [4,5], zone melting liquid metal cooling (ZMLMC) [2] and
gas cooling casting (GCC) [6]. However, it is difcult to further
reform their performances because these techniques are primarily
found on reforming the thermal gradient and cooling rate, and
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 56334042.
E-mail address: wdxuan@shu.edu.cn (W. Xuan).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2014.09.114
0925-8388/ 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

their practical process conditions are limited during directional

solidication.
In recent decade, a high magnetic eld has been applied during
the solidication of metal materials and many studies indicated
that a high magnetic eld could inuence many aspects of solidication such as phase transformation temperature [7], orientation
[810], inter-lamellar spacing or dendrite spacing [7,11,12],
solidication rate [13] and solute distribution [12,14]. Therefore,
the above works show a possibility to control the microstructure
(e.g. dendrite spacing, element segregation and grain defects) by
high magnetic eld for improving the mechanical properties of
superalloy. Subsequently, some researchers have applied a high
magnetic eld to the process of directional solidication of superalloy [1517] based on above works, whose results showed that a
high magnetic eld can obviously change dendrite arm spacing and
element segregation for directionally solidied superalloy. These
researchers think that the effect of the magnetic eld on solidication was mostly attributed to so-called thermo-electrical-magnetic
convection and stress. However, convection in melt during
solidication may cause detachment of dendrite arms and lead to
the formation of equiaxed grains and segregation of solutes, such
as freckles [18]. Therefore, the effect of high magnetic eld on
microstructures of superalloy is also still far from being completely
understood. It is necessary to deeply explore the mechanism of
microstructures of directionally solidied Ni-based superalloy
under the high static magnetic eld. The aim of present work is
to experimentally investigate the effect of a high magnetic eld

W. Xuan et al. / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 620 (2015) 1017

on microstructures of superalloy during directional solidication.

Meanwhile, the changes of interface morphologies for superalloy
during directional solidication are also explored.
2. Experimental procedures
The superalloy DZ417G (C 0.18, Cr 8.96, Mo 3.08, Co 9.72, V 0.86, B 0.015, Al
5.41, Ti 4.50, Fe 0.23, P 0.002, S 0.002, Si 0.04, Mn 0.05, and Ni as balance, wt.%)
was used in this work. The sample with a diameter of 4 mm and a length of
150 mm was placed in a corundum tube of high purity for directional solidication
experiment.
The schematic illustration of the directional solidication apparatus is shown in
Fig. 1. It mainly consisted of a static superconducting magnet (Oxford Instrument), a
Bridgman furnace, a withdrawal system and a temperature controller. The superconducting magnet could produce a vertical static magnetic eld with the maximum intensity up to 14 T. The furnace temperature was controlled by a
temperature controller with the precision of 1 K. The liquid GaInSn metal
(LMC) pool with a water cooling jacket was used to cool down the sample. The temperature gradient in the sample was controlled by adjusting the temperature of hot
zone of the furnace, which was isolated from the LMC by a refractory bafe. The
withdrawal velocity was controlled by a withdrawing device and could be continuously adjusted between 0.5 lm/s and 104 lm/s.
In the experiments, the sample was heated to a certain temperature (1500 C) at
a 10 C/min rate and hold for 30 min, which ensured that the sample was melted
completely and then directionally solidied in the Bridgman apparatus by withdrawing the crucible assembly downward at a constant withdrawal velocity under
various magnetic elds. When the sample reached to a steady-state growth stage, it
was quickly quenched into the LMC. During whole experiments, the Bridgman furnace was uxed with high pure argon to prevent samples from being oxidized. The
temperature gradient in present study was 150 K/cm.
The longitudinal (parallel to the growth direction) and transverse microstructures of samples were examined by optical microscope in etched condition. The
etchant was composed of CuSO4 (4 g), HCl (20 ml), H2SO4 (12 ml) and H2O
(25 ml). The crystal orientations of samples were investigated by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technology in an Apollo 300 scanning electron microscope
(Obducat CamScan Ltd., Cambridge, UK) equipped with the Channel 5 analysis software (Oxford instruments, Oxford, UK). The primary dendrite arm spacings k were
measured by the area counting method on the transverse sections with the equation k = (A/N)0.5, where A is the actual area of the region selected and has been given
a certain value in this paper. N is the average number of primary dendrites in the
area A.

Heat
insulation

Curcible

Heating
elements

Sample

Bmax

Superconducting
magnet

Thermal
baffle
Ga-In-Sn
liquid metal

Water
cooling

Water in

Water out

Withdrawal
rod
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the Bridgman solidication apparatus in the
superconducting magnet.

11

3. Results
Fig. 2 shows the longitudinal microstructures at the quenched
solidliquid interface of directionally solidication superalloy
DZ417G at the temperature gradient of 150 K/cm and at the withdrawal velocity of 10 lm/s in various magnetic elds. It can be
observed that a macroscopic nearly planar interface and the
well-ordered columnar dendrite structures were obtained without
and with a lower magnetic eld (B < 0.6 T), as shown in Fig. 2ac.
However, when the magnetic eld intensity was 0.6 T, a few
columnar dendrites on the edge of sample were fractured and
transformed into equiaxed grains, remaining well grown columnar
dendrites in the center region of the sample, meantime, the macroscopic interface shape of sample became convex-up (Fig. 2d). With
the increasing of the magnetic eld, the number of equiaxed grains
increased and gradually extended from the edge to the center of
sample (Fig. 2eg). Meanwhile, some freckles macrosegregation
appeared. When the magnetic eld increased to 6 T, the equiaxed
grains were grown full of the sample (Fig. 2h). However, the convex shape increased with the increasing of magnetic eld and
reached a maximum under a 1.2 T magnetic eld. Further increase
of magnetic eld results in a sharp decrease of convex shape. However, when the magnetic eld was higher than 4 T, interface shape
became irregular and vortex appeared on the left (Fig. 2g and h).
To visualize the evolution of the microstructure during
directional solidication of superalloy DZ417G under an external
magnetic eld, the EBSD technology was used to investigate the
dendrite morphology and crystallogeny orientation of Fig. 2, and
the corresponding EBSD orientation image maps and the inverse
pole gure were shown in Fig. 3 and different colors represent
different crystallogeny orientations. From the EBSD orientation
image maps and the inverse pole gure, it can be observed that
with the comparison of the microstructures without and with a
low magnetic eld (B < 0.6 T), a few freely orientated equiaxed
grains on the edge of sample were formed under 0.6 T magnetic
eld. With increase of the magnetic eld, the number of equiaxed
grains increased and gradually extended from the edge to the
center of sample. When the magnetic eld increased to 6 T, the
freely orientated equiaxed grains were grown full of sample.
In addition, the effect of a high magnetic eld on columnar to
equiaxed transition (CET) during directional solidication of superalloy DZ417G has been estimated. Fig. 4 shows the volume ratio of
equaxied grains in the longitudinal cross-section near the solid
liquid interface of Fig. 2 and measures samples with 4 mm in wide
and 1.5 mm in depth from the solidliquid interface. The volume
ratio of equaxied grains in the longitudinal cross-section near the
solidliquid interface of sample is dened as the equiaxed grains
content (Cv) and a content value of 100% means total occupation
by equiaxed grains, on the contrary, a content value of 0 means
total columnar dendrites. It can be observed that the content of
equiaxed grains was obviously increased with increases of the
magnetic eld and reached to a maximum (70%) under a 1.2 T
magnetic eld. Further increases of the magnetic eld resulted in
a signicant decrease of equiaxed grains content, and then its
contents increased again after reaching a minimum (55%). Finally,
equiaxed grains grew full of the sample.
The corresponding transverse structure at the quenched solid
liquid interface under various magnetic elds was observed.
Fig. 5 shows the transverse microstructures of solidied superalloy
DZ417G in mushy zone which was 0.2 mm down from the solid
liquid interface in various magnetic elds. In cases of without
and with a lower magnetic eld (B < 0.6 T), the regular arrays of
dendrite structures were homogeneously distributed in the matrix
(Fig. 5a). In comparison, when applying the magnetic eld of 0.6 T
(Fig. 5b), a few dendrites became disorder on the edge of the

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W. Xuan et al. / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 620 (2015) 1017

(a1)

(a2)

(e1)

(e2)

(b1)

(b2)

(f1)

(f2)

(c1)

(c2)

(g1)

(g2)

(d1)

(d2)

(h1)

(h2)

Fig. 2. Longitudinal microstructures near solidliquid interfaces in directionally solidied superalloy DZ417G at the temperature gradient of 150 K/cm and at the withdrawal
velocity of 10 lm/s in various magnetic elds. (a) 0 T, (b) 0.01 T, (c) 0.1 T, (d) 0.6 T, (e) 1.2 T, (f) 2 T, (g) 4 T and (h) 6 T.

sample and some macrosegregation appeared. With increases of

the magnetic eld, the disorder dendrites gradually expanded to
entire region of the sample along with some macrosegregation.
In addition, it was also found that the primary dendrite arm spacing was gradually decreased with increases of the magnetic eld.
To achieve a comprehensive understanding, the evolutions of
the primary dendrite arm spacing in various magnetic elds have
been measured, as shown in Fig. 6. It was noticed that the primary
dendrite arm spacing decreased from 245 lm to 190 lm with
increasing the magnetic eld from 0 to 2 T. However, when the
magnetic eld was higher than 2 T, the primary dendrite arm spacing was not measured because the dendrites were broken and it
was difcult to distinguish the primary dendrites from the highorder arms.

4. Discussion
The above experimental results indicate that the magnetic eld
induces CET and modies the primary dendrite arm spacing. In
addition, the solidliquid interface shape was obviously modied

and the macrosegregation appeared in the magnetic eld. Therefore, this means that the external magnetic eld can signicantly
affect columnar dendrite growth behavior of Ni-based superalloy
DZ417G during directional solidication.

4.1. Variation of microstructure, solidliquid interface shape and

macrosegregation in the high magnetic eld
As we know, the macro-interface shape and the primary
dendrite arm spacing are signicantly affected by the convections
[1921]. However, in recent years, some researchers have found
that the application of magnetic eld can affect ow of electronically conducting melt [11]. Therefore, the modication of the melt
ow in the high magnetic eld could be responsible for the
changes of microstructure and morphology for directionally solidied superalloy DZ417G. Up to date, there are two main types of
effects of magnetic eld on melt convection. One is the electromagnetic braking (EMB) effect and the other is TEMHD effect.
The EMB effect resulting from interaction between the moving
conducting liquid and magnetic eld suppresses melt natural

W. Xuan et al. / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 620 (2015) 1017

13

Fig. 3. EBSD orientation image maps and inverse pole gures (of Fig. 2) for the samples in directionally solidied superalloy DZ417G at the withdrawal velocity of 10 lm/s in
various magnetic elds. (a) 0 T, (b) 0.01 T, (c) 0.1 T, (d) 0.6 T, (e) 1.2 T, (f) 2 T, (g) 4 T and (h) 6 T.

we know, for any metal materials, solid and liquid phases usually
have different thermoelectric powers S [24]. If a temperature
gradient rT exists in the solidliquid interface, the thermoelectric
current circuit JTE is produced only when the gradients of S and rT
are not parallel [25].
In the process of directional solidication, the thermoelectric
currents existing in the dendrites and interdendritic melt of mushy
zone have been investigated and analytical expression for thermoelectric currents in solid and liquid phases is obtained [11]. The
currents js in solid dendrites and jL in liquid phase can be expressed
as following [26]:

Equiaxed grains content, Cv (%)

100
equiaxed grain
80

Liquid

60

40
Mushy zone

20
Solid

0
0

jS

rL rS f L
S  S rT
rL f L rS f S S L

jL

rL rS f L
S  S rT
rL f L rS f S S L

Magnetic field, B (T)

Fig. 4. Effect of the magnetic eld intensity B on the content of equaxied grains Cv
in the longitudinal cross-section for directionally solidied superalloy DZ417G at
the temperature gradient of 150 K/cm and at the withdrawal velocity of 10 lm/s.

convection, which is both theoretically and experimentally proved

by Utech and Flemings [22]. As a consequence, the regular and
coarse columnar dendrites were obtained during directional
solidication [15,23]. However, present experiment shows a contrary result and suggests some convection due to imposition of
the high magnetic eld. Thus, in the process of directional solidication under the high magnetic eld, the changes of microstructure
and morphology should be attributed to the TEMHD effect.
The TEMHD effect resulting from interaction between thermoelectric current and magnetic eld induces a new convection. As

where rL, rS are the electrical conductivity of liquid and solid; fL, fS
are the liquid and solid fractions; SL, SS are the thermoelectric power
of liquid and solid, respectively; rT is the temperature gradient.
When an external axial magnetic eld is applied, the interaction
between thermoelectric current and magnetic eld will produce a
thermoelectric force (TEMF) in solid phase and induce a new ow
in liquid phase, such as thermoelectric magnetic convection (TEMC)
which will promote the mass, heat transport and crystal growth.
Therefore, the CET, modication of the liquidsolid interface shape,
change of the primary dendrite spacing and formation of macrosegregation during directional solidication could be attributed to
TEMC in liquid phase and TEMF in solid phase. Recently, some studies indicated that the orders of magnitude of TEMC are different in
different scales [27]. The actions of TEMC in liquid phase and TEMF

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W. Xuan et al. / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 620 (2015) 1017

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

Fig. 5. Transverse microstructures of solidied superalloy DZ417G in mushy zone which was 0.2 mm down from the solidliquid interface at the temperature gradient of
150 K/cm and at the withdrawal velocity of 10 lm/s in various magnetic elds.

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W. Xuan et al. / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 620 (2015) 1017

krrSrT2

Primary dendrite arm spacing, (m)

250

V max

10m/s

240

!1=3
3

The corresponding magnetic eld intensity can be expressed as:

230

qrSrT
kr

1=3

220

Bmax

210

where k is the typical length scale and q is the density of the alloy
liquid.
According to Eq. (3), we evaluate the maximum velocity of uid
velocity in the mushy zone of directionally solidied superalloy
DZ417G at the scale of sample (4 mm). The physical parameters
of the Ni-based superalloy are listed in Table 1. We can easily
obtain the maximum velocity Vmax which is about 6.4  102 m/s
and much greater than the growth velocity (withdrawal velocity)
of 10 lm/s in present experiment. It is not difcult to imagine that
the maximum velocity of secondary macro-convection in the vertical direction is much larger even than the actual growth velocity
(withdrawal velocity). As a consequence, these convections lead
to the solute accumulation in the edge regions of the sample near
the solidliquid interface. According to the fundamentals of
solidication, solidication is suppressed in the solute rich regions
and further deepens the solidliquid interface modication. The
corresponding magnetic eld intensity is about 1.19 T. However,
present experimental results indicated that the solidliquid interface shape is maximum convex-up in the magnetic eld of 1.2 T at
the scale of samples. This means that the intensity of TEMC is the
maximum value in the magnetic eld of 1.2 T which is in good
agreement with the theoretical value. With further increases of
magnetic eld, the EMB at the sample scale begins to play a great
role in the directional solidication process and the uid motion is
suppressed. As a consequence, the convex-up amplitude of the
solidliquid interface and the macrosegregation will decrease.
When the magnetic eld is strong enough, the uid motion could
be totally suppressed, and then a macroscopic planar interface
and the well-ordered columnar dendrite structures were obtained
again [15,23]. However, present experiment shows a contrary
result and suggests other effects under a high magnetic eld,
which means that the uid motion should not be the only reason
for the change of interface shape and the formation of equiaxed
grains under the magnetic eld.
As we know, when the magnetic eld was used for the process
of directional solidication, the TEMF will appear in the dendrite
except for the formation of TEMC in the liquid, which is:

200
190
180

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

Magnetic field, B (T)

Fig. 6. Effect of the magnetic eld intensity B on the primary dendrite arm spacing k
for directionally solidied superalloy DZ417G at the temperature gradient of 150 K/
cm and at the withdrawal velocity of 10 lm/s.

in solid phase in the mushy zone during directional solidication of

Ni-based superalloy with external magnetic eld are shown in
Fig. 7.
When the longitudinal magnetic eld interacts with unparallel
thermoelectric currents, the TEMF and TEMC are produced in solid
phase and liquid phase, respectively. At the scale of dendrite, the
clockwise and anticlockwise TEMF exert on the top and bottom
of dendrites in the mushy zone, respectively. Meantime, the TEMC
is generated in the liquid phase near the top of dendrites. At the
scale of sample, the interdendritic TEMC causes the macroscopic
TEMC in the solidliquid interface, which is the same as in the
process of directional solidication under rotating magnetic eld
[28], and then the secondary macro-convection may be induced
by the macroscopic TEMC in the vertical direction.
Recently, numerous theoretical [11,29] and experimental studies [30,31] have been conducted to understand the underlying
mechanism of TEMC during directional solidication. Amongst
the theoretical studies, Li et al. [27] has investigated the magnitudes of TEMC at different scales in details and found that the uid
velocity increases as B1/2 in the weak magnetic eld and then
decreases as B1 in the strong magnetic eld. There should be a
maximum value of uid velocity when the TEMC is balanced with
viscous friction and the EMB. The corresponding expression of
maximum velocity Vmax is following to:

(a)

G B
Liquid
TEMC

TEMF

(b)
Secondary macroconvection

TEMC
Liquid

JTE

TE Moment

TEMF

FS

rL rS f L
S  S rTB
rL f L rS f S S L

Eq. (5) shows that the TEMF in the solid increases linearly with
the increases of magnetic eld intensity. Some researches found
that the TEMF with the order of 105 N/m3 was strong enough to
break down the dendrites [36]. Therefore, it is necessary to
consider the effects of the TEMF on interface morphology and
microstructure in the mushy zone for directionally solidied
superalloy.

TE Moment

Table 1
Physical parameters of Ni-based superalloy used for the evaluation.

Solid

Solid

Fig. 7. Schematic illustrations of TEMC and TEMF on the different scales: (a)
schematic illustration of the TEMC at the dendrite scale and the TEMF imposing on
dendrite and (b) the TEMC at the sample scale, secondary macro-convection and the
TEMF exerting on some dendrites.

Physical parameters

Magnitude

Electrical conductivity of solid (rS, X1 m1) 1327 C

Electrical conductivity of liquid (rL, X1 m1) 1327 C
Thermoelectric power of solid (SS, lV K1) 870 C
Thermoelectric power of liquid (SL, lV K1) 1500 C
Density of liquid alloy (q, kg m3), 1427 C

0.75  106 [32]

0.67  106 [32]
10.95 [33]
16 [34]
7.3  103 [35]

W. Xuan et al. / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 620 (2015) 1017

In order to investigate the effects of the TEMF on interface

morphology and microstructure in the mushy zone for directionally
solidied superalloy. We evaluate the magnitude of the TEMF in
the dendrites under various magnetic elds if we take the solid
fraction fS = 0.343, as shown in Fig. 8. It is shown that the TEMF
is larger than 105 N/m3 when the magnetic eld is higher than
4 T, which is strong enough to break down the dendrites and the
dendrites are subsequently transformed into equiaxed grains.
According to Hunts model [37], the CET is assumed to occur
when the volume fraction of equiaxed grains ahead of columnar
dendrites front exceeds 0.49.
Similarly, the TEMF acting on the equaxied grains from fractured columnar dendrite in the mushy zone can cause the equaxied
grains in liquid phase to rotate, and the corresponding expression
of angular velocity W is following to [38]:

SG
W
LB

r =100m

1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0

4.2. Variation of primary dendrite arm spacing in the high magnetic

eld
It is well known that for a given alloy, the dendrite arm spacing
is greatly dependent on the thermal gradient (G) and cooling rate
(GV), but there are some potential effects of convection [19,20]. It
was found that the primary dendrite arm spacing was obviously
decreased in the condition of natural [19] or forced convection
[20,21]. In practice, the primary dendrite spacing is closely associated with the interdendritic constitutional undercooling during
directional solidication [39]. The primary dendrite arm spacing
decreased because the increase of interdendritic undercooling promotes branch of primary dendrite and tertiary dendrite growth,
and then a new primary dendrite was formed. On the contrary,
the primary dendrite spacing increases with the decrease of
interdendritic undercooling. Curreri et al. [40] found that the
convection of uid can cause the increase of interdendritic
undercooling during directional solidication. Therefore, when

25

150K/cm
20

15

10

Magnetic field, B (T)

According to Eq. (6), it is found that the angular velocity

decreases with the increases of the grain size and the magnetic
eld. Fig. 9 shows the angular velocity of equaxied grains in the
mushy zone at 10 lm/s in various magnetic elds. It can be seen
that angular velocity higher than 125 rad/s is strong enough to
destroy the dendrite array if we take a grain radius of about
100 lm according to current experimental results. Therefore, the
TEMF acting on the equaxied grains can cause the solidliquid
interface instability and macrosegregation.

TEMF,FS (104N/m3)

1600

Rotation angular velovity, W (rad/s)

16

Fig. 9. Rotation angular velocity W of equaxied grains as a function of the magnetic

eld intensity B.

the magnetic eld is applied to directional solidication process,

the primary dendrite arm spacing is evidently modied in various
magnetic elds because the uid motion is strengthened or attenuated by the TEMC or the EMB, respectively. According to Eqs. (3)
and (4), at the scale of dendrite, the maximum values of convection
velocity and corresponding magnetic eld are about 0.21 m/s,
5.4 T, respectively. This means that in current experimental
condition of no more than 6 T, the TEMC at the dendrite scale
was dominated. The relationship of the primary dendrite arm spacing and interdendritic convection velocity has been proposed by
Lehmann et al. [11], which shows that the primary dendrite arm
spacing decreases with the increase of convection velocity. Present
experimental results indicated that the primary dendrite arm spacing decreased obviously with increasing the magnetic eld. When
the magnetic eld was higher than 2 T, the primary dendrite arm
spacing was not measured due to the fact that the dendrites were
broken and it was difcult to distinguish the primary dendrites
from the high-order arms. Therefore, the decreases of primary
dendrite arm spacing should be attributed to the interdendritic
uid motion induced by the TEMC in the scales of dendrite in the
magnetic eld.
5. Conclusions
The effect of a high magnetic eld on the microstructures of the
superalloy DZ417G was investigated experimentally during directional solidication. The results showed that at the withdrawal
velocity of 10 lm/s, the CET occurred in the magnetic eld, which
was mainly attributed to the torque generated in the columnar
dendrite by the TEMF. Moreover, the TEMC in the scale of sample
should also be responsible for the CET. The change of solidliquid
interface shape and macrosegregation could be attributed to the
TEMC in the scale of sample with a lower magnetic eld (<1.2 T),
while the TEMF should be responsible for the solidliquid interface
shape modication and macrosegregation with a high magnetic
eld. It was also found that the primary dendrites arm spacing
was signicantly changed by the magnetic eld. The phenomena
could be attributed to the interdendritic uid motion induced by
the TEMC in the scales of dendrite in the magnetic eld.

Acknowledgements
0

Magnetic field, B(T)

Fig. 8. TEMF FS of dendrites as a function of the magnetic eld intensity B.

This work was nancially supported by Major State Basic

Research Development Program (Grant No. 2011CB610404),
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51401116) and

W. Xuan et al. / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 620 (2015) 1017

Projects of International Cooperation and Exchanges NSFC (Grant

No. 50911130365). The authors are grateful for this support.
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