In order to analyze the effect of the growth direction on dendrite arm spacing (λ1) and microhardness (HV) during horizontal directional solidification (HDS), experiments were carried out with the Al-3wt.%Cu-5.5wt.%Si alloy and the results compared with others from the literature elaborated for upward directional solidification (UDS). For this purpose, a water-cooled directional solidification experimental device was developed, and the alloy investigated was solidified under unsteady-state heat flow conditions. Thermal parameters such as growth rate (VL) and cooling rate (TR) were determined experimentally and correlations among VL, TR, λ1 and HV has been performed. It is observed that experimental power laws characterize λ1 with a function of VL and TRgiven by: λ1=constant(VL)-1.1 and λ1=constant(TR)-0.55. The horizontal solidification direction has not affected the power growth law of λ1 found for the upward solidification. However, higher values of λ1 have been observed when the solidification is developed in the horizontal direction. The interrelation of HV as function of VL, TR and λ1 has been represented by power and Hall-Petch laws. A comparison with the Al-3wt.%Cu alloy from literature was also performed and the results show the Si element affecting significativaly the HV values.

O principal objetivo desse trabalho é investigar a influência dos parâmetros térmicos velocidade de solidificação (V L) e taxa de resfriamento (T R), nos espaçamentos dendríticos primários (λ1) da liga hipoeutética Al-7%Si, durante a solidificação direcional horizontal, em regime transiente. Os valores de λ1 foram medidos ao longo do comprimento do lingote e correlacionados com esses parâmetros. A variação dos espaçamentos dendríticos estudados é expressa por meio de funções na forma de potência de V Le T Rdadas, respectivamente, por λ1= 55(V L)-1.1e λ1= 212 (T R)-0.55. Um estudo comparativo é realizado entre os resultados encontrados nesse trabalho e aqueles obtidos para a mesma liga quando solidificada direcionalmente nos sistemas verticais ascendente e descendente, sob as mesmas condições assumidas. Finalmente, os resultados experimentais obtidos são comparados com valores fornecidos por alguns modelos teóricos propostos na literatura para analisar espaçamentos dendríticos primários.

The main purpose of this work is to investigate the influence of thermal parameters such as growth rate (V L) and cooling rate (T R) on the primary dendrite arm spacings (λ1) during the horizontal transient directional solidification of Al-7wt.%Si hypoeutectic alloy. The primary dendrite spacings were measured along the length of the samples and correlated with these thermal parameters. The variation of dendrite spacings is expressed as a power law function of V L and T R given by the formulas λ1 = 55(V L)-1.1 and λ1 = 212 (T R)-0.55, respectively. A comparative study between the results of this work and those from the literature proposed to investigate these dendrite spacings during the upward and downward vertical directional solidification of Al-7wt.%Si alloy is also conducted. Finally, the experimental data are compared with some predictive dendritic models from the literature.