Recent developments and the future of computational science on microstructure formation

The kinetic simulation based on the phase field method has become a very powerful method in fundamental understanding of the dynamics of phase transformation with recent remarkable development of the computer. In the present paper, we briefly explain the theoretical basis of phase field method and then show the simulation results on the dynamics of microstructural changes due to phase transformation. The composition dependence of atomic interchange energy is taken into account to be applicable for the phase diagram of the real alloy systems. The elasticity and the mobility of atoms are assumed to depend on the local order parameters such as the composition, the degree of order, etc. The time-dependent morphological changes are mainly calculated for Fe-Mo, Al-Zn, Fe-Al-Co and GaAsInP alloys. The morphological developments due to the grain boundary motion and dislocation motion are also simulated. The results calculated are quantitatively in good agreement with the experimental facts of the real materials.