Recent Activities on Directional Solidification at the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing

Directional solidification technique permits materials to grow along specific orientation, in order to obtain mechanical and/or physical anisotropy. The present research attempts to introduce the research work in the field of processing of some advanced materials by innovative directional solidification techniques performed at State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing and with author’s intended research work. The paper deals with the specific topics on state of the art of directional solidification: single crystal superalloy and Nd-Fe-B alloys under high thermal gradient, Cu-Ni alloys under deep supercooling of the melt. The relevant solidification phenomena, such as morphological evolution, crystal growth for multi-phases in the processing of directional solidification, are discussed briefly. The trends of developments of directional solidification techniques are also prospected.