Coupling in situ synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy and numerical simulation to quantify the influence of intermetallic formation on permeability in aluminium–silicon–copper alloys

The influence of the β-Al5FeSi intermetallic phase on permeability evolution during solidification in an Al–Si–Cu alloy with a columnar dendritic microstructure has been numerically studied at solid fractions between 0.10 and 0.85. The fluid flow simulations were performed on a semisolid microstructure extracted directly from a single solidifying specimen, enabling the first study of permeability variation on an individual microstructure …