Institute of Microstructure and Properties of Advanced Materials;
Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing;
Beijing University of Technology;
Beijing;
100124;
China;
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing;
Northwestern Polytechnical University;
Xi’an;
710072;
China;
Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons;
Forschungszentrum Jülich;
52428;
Jülich;
Germany;
Directional solidification; Aluminum alloy; Microstructural evolution; Feathery crystals; Twinned dendrites;