On the role of solidification modelling in Integrated Computational Materials Engineering "ICME"

Solidification during casting processes marks the starting point of the history of almost any component or product. Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) [1-4] recognizes the importance of further tracking the history of microstructure evolution along the subsequent process chain. Solidification during joining processes in general happens quite late during production, where the parts to be joined already have experienced a number of processing steps which affected their microstructure. Reliable modelling of melting and dissolution of these microstructures represents a key issue before eventually modelling 're'-solidification e.g. during welding or soldering. Some instructive examples of microstructure evolution during a joining process obtained on the basis of synthetic and simulated initial microstructures of an Al-Cu binary model system are discussed.