Diffusionless crystal growth in rapidly solidifying eutectic systems

Using a local nonequilibrium model of solidification, experiments on rapid eutectic growth are analyzed. An analytical solution of a problem of rapid lamellar eutectic growth under local nonequilibrium conditions in the solute diffusion field is found. It is shown that solute diffusion-limited growth of a eutectic pattern is completely finished, and diffusionless growth of the chemically homogeneous crystalline phase begins to proceed at a critical point V = V(D), where V is the solid-liquid interface velocity and V(D) is the solute diffusion speed in bulk liquid. A suppression of eutectic decomposition occurs in the range V > or = V(D) that results in a growth of homogeneous crystal phase with the initial (nominal) chemical composition of the binary system.