Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Commercial grain refiners for aluminium solidification are so potent that the barrier forgrain initiation is that for free growth rather than for nucleation itself. In this case quantitative prediction of grain size is possible. For small melt volumes a successful isothermal-melt model is presented. This is extended to directional solidification in a temperature gradient using cellular-automaton modelling of grain growth with finite-element heat-flow calculations.