Insights into the selection mechanism of Widmanstätten growth by phase-field calculations

Abstract We investigate the growth of Widmanstatten structures in metallic alloys with phase field calculations. We show that elastic energy anisotropy associated with shear dominated transformations is alone sufficient to give rise to plate or needle like precipitates with constant lengthening rates at constant supersaturations. We show that Ivantsov analytical solutions still provide good estimates of the diffusion flux around tips even when elasticity is accounted for. A careful analysis demonstrates that, for shear dominated transformations, (i) the lengthening direction lies in the habit plane determined by one of the minima of the elastic kernel; (ii) the tip shape and size are equilibrium features, driven by elastic forces, rather than dynamically determined as usually assumed; (iii) the tip size of acicular precipitates can be rationalized by the value of the elastic kernel in the lengthening direction.