Solidification microstructures: recent developments, future directions

The status of solidification science is critically evaluated and future directions of research in this technologically important area are proposed. The most important advances in solidification science and technology of the last decade are discussed: interface dynamics, phase selection, microstructure selection, peritectic growth, convection effects, multicomponent alloys, and numerical techniques. It is shown how the advent of new mathematical techniques (especially phase-field and cellular automata models) coupled with powerful computers now allows the following: modeling of complicated interface morphologies, taking into account not only steady state but also non-steady state phenomena; considering real alloys consisting of many elements through on-line use of large thermodynamic data banks; and taking into account natural and forced convection effects. A series of open questions and future prospects are also given. It is hoped that the reader is encouraged to explore this important and highly interesting field and to add her/his contributions to an ever better understanding and modeling of microstructure development.