Trapping of vacancies by rapid solidification

A model has been developed for the process of trapping of vacancies in rapid solidification of pure metals, which includes the effect of solute drag where vacancies play the role of solute. Within a reasonable range of parameter values it predicts that substantial trapping cannot occur unless the solidification velocity is 1 m/s or higher. It is demonstrated that the intrinsic mobility of the liquid/solid interface should not be evaluated without considering the effects of vacancy trapping and solute drag caused by vacancies. The model is applied to copper and unknown parameters are evaluated from information on the solidification velocity as a function of undercooling.