Key terms to remember while talking about Nucleation & Growth are skin formation, supercooling, undercooling, nucleation

and growth, homogeneous nucleation (or self-nucleation) and heterogeneous nucleation. For homogeneous nucleation, part of the casting which is near the mold wall is supercooled and solidifies as fine equi-axed grains. Nucleation of supercooled grains is governed by two factors: free energy available from the solidification process (dependent upon volume of the particle formed) and energy required to from a liquid-solid interface (dependent upon the surface area of the particle). Net effect of these two factors is that the total energy of the particle reaches a maximum at a given particle size for a given supercooling temperature. This is the critical particle size which must be created before the nucleus is stable for that particular supercooling temperature. For homogeneous nucleation, as the degree of supercooling increases, the free energy available from the liquid-solid transformation also increases, and consequently, the critical particle size required for stability decreases, but simultaneously the thermal fluctuations which tend to create stable nuclei also decrease. As a consequence, the rate of nucleation builds up to maximum with increasing supercooling and then drops off. For heterogeneous nucleation, usually foreign particles are present which alter the liquid-solid interface energy enough to assist in nucleation, thereby reducing the amount of supercooling required to effect nucleation. Once a stable nucleus is formed, it grows by acquiring atoms from the liquid. The rate of growth is governed by the amount of undercooling below the melting point, growth rate increasing with the degree of undercooling until it reaches a maximum and then drops off. The rate of nucleation and rate of growth follow the same general trend with increasing amount of supercooling. The relative rates differ, however, to the extent that nucleation is predominant in the early stages of freezing, and as a consequence the first layer of solid metal at the metal-mold interface consists of the fine equi-axed grains mentioned previously. The cast structure of pure metal or alloy can be differentiated as equi-axed, columnar or dendritic; which unfold as a result of the condition. For pure metals, wholly columnar structure surrounded by chilled zone (typically mold wall) of fine equi-axed grains. For solid-solution alloys, structures containing partially columnar and partially equi-axed grains (in the center and along the edge) are produced. In case where thermal gradients are absent or catalyst promotes heterogeneous nucleation, wholly equiaxed grains result. In pure metals columnar grains extend to the center of the casting, but in alloys the columnar grains growth may be interrupted by an equi-axed grain growth. If the liquid metal is supercooled, grain growth can occur dendritically, that is in a treelike fashion which is a discussion related to solid solutions. During the time the first skin of solid metal is being produced, the latent heat of fusion is being released, and the remaining liquid rapidly loses most of its undercooling. The effect of this change is to stop further nucleation. Growth continues (on some grains already formed), which is controlled by the rate of

heat transfer from the casting, and since this establishes a temperature gradient toward the casting surface (lower temperature), the growth occurs in a direction opposite to the heat flow. In addition, because growth is also dependent on crystallographic direction as well as the direction of heat flow, only those grains which happen to be favorably oriented will grow toward the center of the castings and other less favorably oriented grains will be pinched off. The net effect will be to create a zone of columnar grains next to the outer layer of fine grains.