Phase-Field Simulation of Sintering Process:A Review

Sintering,a well-established technique in powder metallurgy,plays a critical role in the processing of high melting point materials.A comprehensive understanding of structural changes during the sintering process is essential for effective product assessment.The phase-field method stands out for its unique ability to simulate these structural transformations.Despite its widespread application,there is a notable absence of literature reviews focused on its usage in sintering simulations.Therefore,this paper addresses this gap by reviewing the latest advancements in phase-field sintering models,covering approaches based on energy,grand potential,and entropy increase.The characteristics of various models are extensively discussed,with a specific emphasis on energy-based models incorporating considerations such as interface energy anisotropy,tensor-form diffusion mechanisms,and various forms of rigid particle motion during sintering.Furthermore,the paper offers a concise summary of phase-field sintering models that integrate with other physical fields,including stress/strain fields,viscous flow,temperature field,and external electric fields.In conclusion,the paper provides a succinct overview of the entire content and delineates potential avenues for future research.

Phase-field simulations of the effect of temperature and interface for zirconiumδ-hydrides

Hydride precipitation in zirconium cladding materials can damage their integrity and durability.Service temperature and material defects have a significant effect on the dynamic growth of hydrides.In this study,we have developed a phasefield model based on the assumption of elastic behaviour within a specific temperature range(613 K-653 K).This model allows us to study the influence of temperature and interfacial effects on the morphology,stress,and average growth rate of zirconium hydride.The results suggest that changes in temperature and interfacial energy influence the length-to-thickness ratio and average growth rate of the hydride morphology.The ultimate determinant of hydride orientation is the loss of interfacial coherency,primarily induced by interfacial dislocation defects and quantifiable by the mismatch degree q.An escalation in interfacial coherency loss leads to a transition of hydride growth from horizontal to vertical,accompanied by the onset of redirection behaviour.Interestingly,redirection occurs at a critical mismatch level,denoted as qc,and remains unaffected by variations in temperature and interfacial energy.However,this redirection leads to an increase in the maximum stress,which may influence the direction of hydride crack propagation.This research highlights the importance of interfacial coherency and provides valuable insights into the morphology and growth kinetics of hydrides in zirconium alloys.

A phase-field model for simulating the propagation behavior of mixed-mode cracks during the hydraulic fracturing process in fractured reservoirs

A novel phase-field model for the propagation of mixed-mode hydraulic fractures,characterized by the formation of mixed-mode fractures due to the interactions between fluids and solids,is proposed.In this model,the driving force for the phase field consists of both tensile and shear components,with the fluid contribution primarily manifesting in the tension driving force.The displacement and pressure are solved simultaneously by an implicit method.The numerical solution's iterative format is established by the finite element discretization and Newton-Raphson(NR)iterative methods.The correctness of the model is verified through the uniaxial compression physical experiments on fluid-pressurized rocks,and the limitations of the hydraulic fracture expansion phase-field model,which only considers mode I fractures,are revealed.In addition,the influence of matrix mode II fracture toughness value,natural fracture mode II toughness value,and fracturing fluid injection rate on the hydraulic fracture propagation in porous media with natural fractures is studied.

Dendritic tip selection during solidification of alloys:Insights from phase-field simulations

The effect of undercooling DT and the interface energy anisotropy parameter e4 on the shape of the equiaxed dendritic tip has been investigated by using a quantitative phase-field model for solidification of binary alloys.It was found that the tip radius r increases and the tip shape amplitude coefficient A4 decreases with the increase of the fitting range for all cases.The dendrite tip shape selection parameter sdecreases and then stabilizes with the increase of the fitting range,and sincreases with the increase of e4.The relationship between sand e4 follows a power-law function sµea 4,and a is independent of DT but dependent on the fitting range.Numerical results demonstrate that the predicted sis consistent with the curve of microscopic solvability theory(MST)for e4<0.02,and sobtained from our phase-field simulations is sensitive to the undercooling when e4 is fixed.

Fourth-order phase-field modeling for brittle fracture in piezoelectric materials

Failure analyses of piezoelectric structures and devices are of engineering and scientific significance.In this paper,a fourth-order phase-field fracture model for piezoelectric solids is developed based on the Hamilton principle.Three typical electric boundary conditions are involved in the present model to characterize the fracture behaviors in various physical situations.A staggered algorithm is used to simulate the crack propagation.The polynomial splines over hierarchical T-meshes(PHT-splines)are adopted as the basis function,which owns the C1continuity.Systematic numerical simulations are performed to study the influence of the electric boundary conditions and the applied electric field on the fracture behaviors of piezoelectric materials.The electric boundary conditions may influence crack paths and fracture loads significantly.The present research may be helpful for the reliability evaluation of the piezoelectric structure in the future applications.

Phase-field study on competition precipitation process of Ni-Al-V alloy

With microscopic phase-field kinetic model, atomic-scale computer simulation program for the precipitation sequence and microstructure evolution of the ordered intermetallic compound γ＇ and θ in ternary Ni75AlxV25-x alloy were studied. The simulation results show that Al concentration has important effects on the precipitation sequence. When Al concentration in Ni75AlxV25-x alloy is low, 0（Ni3V） ordered phase will be firstly precipitated, followed by γ＇（Ni3Al） ordered phase. With Al concentration increasing, θ and γ＇ ordered phases are simultaneously precipitated. With A1 concentration further increasing, γ＇ ordered phase is firstly precipitated, followed by θ ordered phase. There is a competition relationship between θ and γ＇ ordered phases during growth and coarsening process. No matter which first precipitates, θ ordered phase always occupies advantage in the competition process of coarsening, thus, the microstructure with preferred orientation is formed.

Phase-field simulations of forced flow effect on dendritic growth perpendicular to flow

The effect of supercooled melt forced laminar flow at low Reynolds Number on dendritic growth perpendicular to melt flow direction was investigated with the phase-field method by incorporating melt convection and thermal noise under non-isothermal condition. By taking the dendritic growth of high pure succinonitrile （SCN） supercooled melt as an example, side-branching shape difference of melts with flow and without flow was analyzed. Relationships among supercooled melt inflow velocity, deflexion angle of dendritic arm and dendritic tip growth velocity were studied. Results show that the melt inflow velocity has few effects on the dendritic tip growth velocity. A formula of relationship between the velocity of the melt in front of primary dendritic tip and the dendritic growth time was deduced, and the calculated result was in quantitative agreement with the simulation result.

Microscopic phase-field study on directional coarsening mechanism caused by interaction between precipitates in Ni-Al-V alloy

A microscopic phase-field model was used to investigate a directional coarsening mechanism caused by the anisotropic growth of long period stacking and different effects of phases on precipitation in Ni-Al-V alloy.The results show that DO22 mainly coarsens along its short axis,which may press the neighboring L12,leading to the interaction among atoms.Diffusion channels of Al are formed in the direction where the mismatch between γ＇ and γ reduces;the occupation probabilities are anisotropic in space;and direction coarsening of L12 occurs finally.With a rise of ageing temperature,phases appear later and DO22 is much later at a higher temperature,the average occupation probabilities of Al and V reduce,and Al changes more than V.

Comparative analysis of isothermal and non-isothermal solidification of binary alloys using phase-field model

Based on the entropy function, a two-dimensional phase field model of binary alloys was established. Meanwhile, an explicit difference method with uniform grid was adopted to solve the phase field and solute field controlled equations. And the alternating direction implicit(ADI) algorithm for solving temperature field controlled equation was also employed to avoid the restriction of time step. Some characteristics of the Ni-Cu alloy were captured in the process of non-isothermal solidification, and the comparative analysis of the isothermal and the non-isothermal solidification was investigated. The simulation results indicate that the non-isothermal model is favorable to simulate the real solidification process of binary alloys, and when the thermal diffusivity decreases, the non-isothermal phase-field model is gradually consistent with the isothermal phase-field model.

Phase-field modeling of dendritic growth under forced flow based on adaptive finite element method

A mathematical model combined projection algorithm with phase-field method was applied. The adaptive finite element method was adopted to solve the model based on the non-uniform grid, and the behavior of dendritic growth was simulated from undercooled nickel melt under the forced flow. The simulation results show that the asymmetry behavior of the dendritic growth is caused by the forced flow. When the flow velocity is less than the critical value, the asymmetry of dendrite is little influenced by the forced flow. Once the flow velocity reaches or exceeds the critical value, the controlling factor of dendrite growth gradually changes from thermal diffusion to convection. With the increase of the flow velocity, the deflection angle towards upstream direction of the primary dendrite stem becomes larger. The effect of the dendrite growth on the flow field of the melt is apparent. With the increase of the dendrite size, the vortex is present in the downstream regions, and the vortex region is gradually enlarged. Dendrite tips appear to remelt. In addition, the adaptive finite element method can reduce CPU running time by one order of magnitude compared with uniform grid method, and the speed-up ratio is proportional to the size of computational domain.

Phase-field simulation of forced flow effect on random preferred growth direction of multiple grains

The random distribution problem of dendrite preferred growth direction was settled by random grid method.This method was used to study the influence of forced laminar flow effect on multiple grains during solidification.Taking high pure succinonitrile （SCN） undercooled melt as an example,the forced laminar flow effect on multiple grains was studied by phase-field model of single grain which coupled with flow equations at non-isothermal condition.The simulation results show that the random grid method can reasonably settle the problem of random distribution and is more effective.When the solid fraction is relatively low,melt particles flow around the downstream side of dendrite,and the flow velocity between two dendrite arms becomes high.At the stage of solidification time less than 1800Δt,every dendrite grows freely;the upstream dendrites are stronger than the downstream ones.The higher the melt flow rate,the higher the solid fraction.However,when the solid fraction is relatively high,the dendrite arm intertwins and only a little residual melt which is not encapsulated can flow;the solid fraction will gradually tend to equal to solid fraction of melt without flow.

A Modified Phase-Field Model for Polymer Crystal Growth

The irrationality of existing phase field model is analyzed and a modified phase-field model is proposed for polymer crystal growth, in which the parameters are obtained from real materials and very simple to use, and most importantly, no paradoxical parameters appeared in the model. Moreover, it can simulate different microstructure patterns owing to the use of a new different free energy function for the simulation of morphologies of polymer. The new free energy function considers both the cases of T〈Tm and T≥Tm, which is more reasonable than that in published literatures that all ignored the T≥Tm case. In order to show the validity of the modified model, the finite difference method is used to solve the model and different crystallization morphologies during the solidification process of isotactic polystyrene are obtained under different conditions. Numerical results show that the growth rate of the initial secondary arms is obviously increased as the anisotropy strength increases. But the anisotropy strength seems to have no apparent effect on the global growth rate. The whole growth process of the dendrite depends mainly upon the latent heat and the latent heat has a direct effect on the tip radius and tip velocity of side branches.

Simulation of pre-precipitation in Ni_(75)Al_(14)Mo_(11) alloy by microscopic phase-field model

The early precipitation process of Ni（75）Al（14）Mo（11） alloy was simulated by microscopic phase-field model at different temperatures.The microstructure of the alloy,the precipitation time of Llo structure and occupation probability of the three kinds of atoms were investigated.It is indicated that the non-stoichiometric Ll0（Ⅰ/Ⅱ） phases are found in the precipitation process.With the temperature increasing,the appearance time of Ll0 is brought forward.The Ll0（Ⅱ） structure always precipitates earlier than the Ll0（Ⅰ） structure.Compared with lower temperature,higher temperature brings the formation time of Ll0 phase forward and makes Ll0 phase have a higher order degree.But lower temperature shortens the process time of the Ll0 phase to the Ll2 phase.Al and Mo atoms tend to occupy γ site,Ni atom tends to occupy a and β sites.At the same temperature,Al atom has stronger occupation ability than Mo atom in the same site.Ni,Al and Mo collectively form the composited Ll2 structure.

Quantitative calculation on atomic site occupation during precipitation of Ni_3(Al_(1-x)Fe_x) by microscopic phase-field study

Microscopic phase-field method was used to simulate the site occupation of a series of alloys with a stoichiometric composition of Ni75Al25?xFex (x=0, 5?10) aged at 1273 K. With the change of Fe content, quantitative calculations were made on each atomic site occupation probability (SOP) in L12-Ni3 (Al1?xFex), so as to find out the dynamic response law. The result of the study shows that, with the increase of Fe content, the Fe atom preferentially occupies the B sites (corner sites of FCC) with its SOP value being increased gradually, and the SOP of the Al atom on the B sites is greatly decreased. Meanwhile, AlNi and FeNi anti-sites form in the precipitation of L12 phase. Moreover, with the increase of Fe content, the formation of AlNi and FeNi anti-sites becomes much easier. In addition, it has been found that the instantaneous dynamic evolution of the atomic SOP is completed at the early stage of the growth of L12 phases.

受内反馈控制的Phase-Field系统的稳定性

该文证明了受内反馈控制的 phase- field系统的解在某些条件下是稳定的 .

A phase-field model for simulating various spherulite morphologies of semi-crystalline polymers

A modified phase-field model is proposed for simulating the isothermal crystallization of polymer melts. The model consists of a second-order phase-field equation and a heat conduction equation. It obtains its model parameters from the real material parameters and is easy to use with tolerable computational cost. Due to the use of a new free energy functional form, the model can reproduce various single crystal morphologies of polymer melts under quiescent conditions, including dendritic, lamellar branching, ring-banded, breakup of ring-banded, faceted hexagonal, and spherulitic structures. Simulation results of isotactic polystyrene crystals demonstrate that the present phase-field model has the ability to give qualitative predictions of polymer crystallization under isothermal and quiescent conditions.

Phase-field crystal simulation of evolution of liquid pools in grain boundary pre-melting regions

Pre-melting is a phenomenon that below the melting point the liquid-like structure appears at the grainboundary while the grain interior remains a crystal structure. The phase-field crystal method was employed to investigate the early evolution of the liquid pools in pre-melting regions, mainly involving four structural transformations: solid-solid state → small droplet → large liquid pool → homogeneous liquid melting. The microscopic morphology and free energy variation with different average atomic densities demonstrate that the average atomic density is sensitive to the morphological characteristics of liquid pools. Both two-dimensional and three-dimensional simulation results show that the amplitude reduction of order parameters can promote the order-disorder transition of grain boundaries, causing pre-melting in the edge dislocation aggregation. The relationship between the average atomic density and the width of the liquid pools is verified from thermodynamics, which provides a prerequisite for the application of high-temperature strain in the later stage to some extent.

Convection effect on dendritic growth using phase-field method

Phase-field model was employed to quantitatively study the effect of convection on pattern selection and growth rate of 2D and 3D dendrite tip,as well as the effect of the different convection velocity on the dendritic growth.The calculated results show that crystal is asymmetric in the priority direction of growth under flow.The dentritic growth is promoted in the upstream region and suppressed in the downstream region.Convection can cause deviation in the dendrite growth direction and the preferred direction of the columnar crystals.It has been found that both primary dendrite stem and secondary dendrite arm deflect significantly towards upstream direction,secondary dendrite arm in upstream direction is more developed than the primary dendrite in downstream direction.

Phase-field simulation of secondary dendrite growth in directional solidification of binary alloys

Phase field method was used to simulate the effect of grains orientation angle θ_(11) and azimuth θ_A of non-preferentially growing dendrites on the secondary dendrites of preferentially growing dendrites. In the simulation process, two single-factor influence experiments were designed for columnar crystal structures. The simulation results showed that, when θ_(11) < 45o and θ_A < 45o, as θ_(11) was enlarged, the growth direction of the secondary dendrites on the preferentially growing dendrites at the converging grain boundary(GB) presented an increasing inclination to that of preferentially growing dendrites; with increasing θ_A, the growth direction of the secondary dendrites on the preferentially growing dendrites at the converging GB exhibited greater deflection,and the secondary dendrites grew with branches; the secondary dendrites on the preferentially growing dendrites at diverging GBs grew along a direction vertical to the growth direction of the preferentially growing dendrites.When θ_A = 45o and θ_(11) = 45o, the secondary dendrites grew in a direction vertical to the growth direction of preferentially growing dendrites. The morphologies of the dendrites obtained through simulation can also be found in metallographs of practical solidification experiments. This implies that the effect of a grain's orientation angle and azimuth of non-preferentially growing dendrites on the secondary dendrites of preferentially growing dendrites does exist and frequently appears in the practical solidification process.

Phase-field simulation of dendritic solidification using a full threaded tree with adaptive meshing

Simulation of the microstructure evolution during solidifi cation is greatly benefi cial to the control of solidifi cation microstructures. A phase-fi eld method based on the full threaded tree(FTT) for the simulation of casting solidifi cation microstructure was proposed in this paper, and the structure of the full threaded tree and the mesh refi nement method was discussed. During dendritic growth in solidifi cation, the mesh for simulation is adaptively refi ned at the liquid-solid interface, and coarsened in other areas. The numerical results of a threedimension dendrite growth indicate that the phase-fi eld method based on FTT is suitable for microstructure simulation. Most importantly, the FTT method can increase the spatial and temporal resolutions beyond the limits imposed by the available hardware compared with the conventional uniform mesh. At the simulation time of 0.03 s in this study, the computer memory used for computation is no more than 10 MB with the FTT method, while it is about 50 MB with the uniform mesh method. In addition, the proposed FTT method is more effi cient in computation time when compared with the uniform mesh method. It would take about 20 h for the uniform mesh method, while only 2 h for the FTT method for computation when the solidifi cation time is 0.17 s in this study.