Effect of thermal gradient on interfacial energy and its anisotropy of pure Al

A Swamy and P Choudhury, MATERIALS TODAY COMMUNICATIONS, 45, 112283 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2025.112283

This study investigates the impact of thermal gradients on the solid- liquid interfacial free energy (gamma) and its anisotropy in pure aluminum using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations coupled with the capillary fluctuation method (CFM). The choice of pure Al stems from its importance as a model system for studying solidification phenomena and its widespread use of Al alloys in engineering applications. By systematically varying the applied thermal gradient across the solid- liquid interface, the study aims to quantify the relationship between 'gamma', and the anisotropy parameters (epsilon 1, epsilon 2), and thermal gradient. The results demonstrate that interfacial stiffness and interfacial energy increase almost linearly with the applied thermal gradient, while anisotropy parameters remain relatively unaffected. Notably, the observed linear relationship between interfacial energy and thermal gradient agrees with previous findings for pure Al, despite using a different interatomic potential. This agreement across independent studies strengthens the validity of this observation.

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