5th International Conference on Advances in Solidification Processes (ICASP-5) 5th International Symposium on Cutting Edge of Computer Simulation of Solidification, Casting and Refining (CSSCR-5)

Computational simulations of solidification microstructures have contributed to understanding of time evolutions of complex morphologies of crystals in a variety of solidification processes. A phase-field method is an effective method in simulating the solidification microstructures such as a dendrite structure, a typical morphology of growing solid in solidification of metals. Importantly, accuracy of phase-field simulations is entirely determined by accuracy of input parameters for the simulations. In particular, accuracy of parameters for solid-liquid interfacial properties such as interfacial energy and its anisotropy strength are very important because such parameters directly affect the morphology of growing solids. However, it is not straightforward to determine interfacial properties with high accuracy by means of experimental methods. Methods such as capillary fluctuation method and cleaving technique have been developed to calculate the interfacial properties based on molecular dynamics simulations. Although these methods are very effective, these methods are applicable only to calculation of the equilibrium properties of solid-liquid interface. Since little has been clarified about non-equilibrium properties of interface, it is necessary to develop a method that can be applied to estimation of non-equilibrium interfacial properties as well as equilibrium one. In addition, it is highly desirable to develop a simple but accurate method for estimating the interfacial properties. In this study, data assimilation is applied to the estimation of interfacial properties at the solid/liquid interface during solidification of metals. The twin experiment was performed in order to investigate the effectiveness of data assimilation to the estimation of interfacial properties.