Agradecimentos: The authors wish to acknowledge funding for this work from the São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil (FAPESP: Grant 2017/12741-6), and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil (CNPq). The authors thank the Laboratory of Structural Characterization (LCE/DEMa/UFSCar) for the general facilities Ver menos

Ternary Al-15 wt% Cu-7 wt% Si and Al-22 wt% Cu-7 wt% Si alloy specimens were generated by transient directional solidification (DS) and rapid solidification (RS) techniques. The microstructures are constituted by an alpha-Al dendritic matrix surrounded by two eutectic, that is, a binary eutectic (Si + alpha-Al) and a bimodal eutectic, consisting of cellular-type binary eutectic colonies (alpha-Al + Al2Cu) in a ternary eutectic matrix consisting of alpha-Al + Al2Cu + Si. The bimodal eutectic exists at cooling rates from 0.5 to 250 K/s. The secondary dendritic spacing, lambda(2), of the DS samples varied from 5 to 20 mu m and from 10 to 18 mu m for both examined alloys. The lambda(2) from 2.7 to 4.0 mu m characterized the RS samples. Mechanical properties have been determined for various samples related to different dendritic spacing values. Based on the evaluation of the rapidly solidified microstructures, it was possible to assess the cooling rates Ver menos