The microstructures and crystal growth directions of permanent mould casting and directionally solidified Al-Mg al oys with different Mg contents have been investigated. The results indicate that the effect of Mg content on microstructure is basical y same for the al oys prepared by these two methods. The primary grains change from cel ular crystals to developed columnar dendrites, and then to equiaxed dendrites as the Mg content is increased. Simultaneously, both the cel ular or columnar grain region and the primary trunk spacing decrease. Al of these changes are mainly attributed to the constitutional supercooling resulting from Mg element. Comparatively, the cellular or columnar crystals of the directionally solidified alloys are straighter and more paral el than those of the permanent mould casting al oys. These have straight or wavy grain boundaries, one of the most important microstructure characteristics of feathery grains. However, the transverse microstructure and growth direction reveal that they do not belong to feathery grains. The Mg seemingly can affect the crystal growth direction, but does not result in the formation of feathery grains under the conditions employed in the study.
The microstructures and crystal growth directions of permanent mould casting（PMC） and directionally solidified（DS） Al-Cu alloys with different contents of Cu were investigated. Simultaneously, the effects of pouring temperature on the microstructure and crystal growth direction of permanent mould casting pure Al were also discussed. The results indicate that the α（Al） crystals in the pure Al do not always keep common columnar grains, but change from the columnar grains to columnar dendrites with developed arms as the pouring temperature rises. The growth direction also varies with the change of pouring temperature. Cu element has similar effects on the microstructures of the PMC and DS casting Al-Cu alloys and the α（Al） crystals gradually change from columnar crystals in turn to columnar dendrites and developed equiaxed dendrites as the Cu content increases. The crystal growth direction in the PMC alloys gradually approaches （110） orientation with increasing Cu content. But the resulting crystals with growth direction of （110） do not belong to feathery grains. There are also no feathery grains to form in all of the DS Al-Cu alloys.
