Study of combined effect of thermal anisotropy and forced convection on the growth of an equiaxed dendritic crystal

Abstract

An enthalpy based model has been developed to study the effect of thermal anisotropy on crystal growth in presence of fluid flow. The governing equations are formulated using volume averaging technique where the energy and species equations are solved explicitly, whereas the momentum and continuity equations are solved using the SIMPLER algorithm. The effect of thermal anisotropy has been incorporated by considering a conductivity matrix comprised of variable thermal conductivity coefficients. Extensive parametric analysis has been performed to study the relative effect of thermal anisotropy and convection on dendrite growth morphology. Based on the study, specific regimes have been identified where either thermal anisotropy or convection effect is dominant. � 2018 by the authors of the abstracts.