Abstract:Cu-2.0Fe-0.03P-0.11Zn alloy is a promising candidate material for electrical connectors owing to the low cost and excellent castability. Continuous casting serves as a key process in strip and plate production, where the solidification microstructure strongly influences subsequent processing and final product properties. In this study, a cellular automaton-finite element (CAFE) model was developed to simulate the solidification microstructure evolution of the Cu-2.0Fe-0.03P-0.11Zn alloy under continuous casting conditions. Simulated fractions of columnar and equiaxed grains were 87.4% and 12.6%, respectively, which were in close agreement with those of experimentally measured macrostructures (88.6% and 11.4%), confirming reliability and accuracy of the established model. Further investigations were conducted on effects of nucleation undercooling and nucleation density on solidification microstructure. Results indicated that increasing nucleation undercooling reduced the proportion of equiaxed grains: as undercooling increased from 1 K to 6 K, equiaxed grain fraction decreased from 17.1% to 9.2%, respectively. In contrast, increasing nucleation density promoted equiaxed grain formation, with equiaxed grain fraction increasing from 10.4% to 18.5% as the nucleation density increased from 0.5×109 m–3 to 40×109 m–3, respectively.