The buoyancy convection during directional solidification of AlZn eutectic

Abstract
A study has been made of the effect of buoyancy convection during the directional solidification of AlZn eutectic alloy. Experiments have been conducted using a Bridgman-Stockbarger arrangement with the furnace moving along the specimen. The apparatus rotated around the horizontal axis, which made it possible to carry out measurements at different angles β contained by the gravity and temperature gradient vectors in the specimen. The anisotropy of both the linear thermal expansion coefficient α and the hardness HK measured by the Knoop method has been studied. The dilatation measurements confirmed the expected anisotropy of the linear thermal expansion of directionally solidified specimens. The values of HK correspond with the lamellar spacing measured in the metallographic study.