Dendrite growth in nickel-based superalloy with in-situ observation by high temperature confocal laser scanning microscopy and numerical simulation

•HT-CLSM has great potential to investigate dendrite growth of nickel-based superalloy.•Dendrite growth is investigated by in-situ observations and simulations.•Cooling rate has a great influence on dendrite growth.•SDAS decrease exponentially with the increasing of cooling rate.