MedeA PhaseField - Simulate years of microstructure evolution – in minutes

Phase field modeling is the method of choice for simulating material microstructures, enabling prediction of properties like mechanical strength, phase transitions, and environmental degradation behavior. By simulating the evolution of material phases under different conditions, MedeA PhaseField can predict behaviors like grain growth, phase separation, corrosion and hydriding behavior, stress evolution, and much more.

MedeA PhaseField is a versatile finite element based solver [2] for coupled phase field, mass transport, and linear elasticity equations. This coupling enables detailed simulations of microstructure evolution in metals, ceramics, and other materials in which mechanical properties are influenced by phase changes. PhaseField supports diverse boundary conditions, making it applicable to a wide range of real world scenarios.

The user defines an initial microstructure and phase properties such as free energies, bulk diffusion coefficients, and interfacial properties such as interface energies and grain boundary diffusivities. If unknown, many such properties can be calculated directly from first principles or atomistics using MedeA’s powerful tool suite.

Once a simulation is initialized, the finite element grid evolves adaptively, even to complex geometries, as the simulation progresses, enabling optimal trades between fidelity and speed.

Examples of microstructure evolution simulated with MedeA PhaseField. (Top) A 2D simulation of columnar oxide growing a metal substrate, with phases shown in the left panel and the stress response in the right panel. (Bottom) Interfaces in a Ag-Cu eutectic system modeled in 3D.

MedeA PhaseField empowers users to simulate many, and varied phenomena of engineering importance. For example, the figure shows snapshots of a 2D simulation of an oxidation process, and a 3D simulation of phase separation in an Ag-Cu binary eutectic alloy. In both cases, elastic effects are critical for predicting the formation of microstructural features. Elastic anisotropy, phase transformation kinetics, and the coupling between phase and mechanical fields are key features that can be adjusted to match experimental data or theoretical models.

Advanced users can modify the finite element mesh, refine the phase field equations, or introduce custom boundary conditions to further enhance the realism and accuracy of simulations. Integration of the phase field and elasticity equations enables self-consistent calculations of stress and strain, making PhaseField suitable for studying deformation-induced phase transformations and the interaction between microstructure and mechanical properties.

PhaseField simulation results are exportable to post-processing tools for further analysis, including visualization and data extraction for validation against experimental findings.