OCT 22 - Newsletter

Dear OpenPhase users and interested scientists,

The OpenPhase project has grown considerably over the past ten years of development at the Interdisciplinary Centre of Advanced Materials Simulation (ICAMS) at Ruhr-University Bochum. More than 50.000 lines of code are openly available on the website OpenPhase.rub.de.

The open-source software library contains the full functionality of the multi-phase-field model [Steinbach & Pezzolla, Physica D, 1999] with binary diffusion and small strain elasticity for academic use under the GPLv3 license. The OpenPhase Studio Offers extensions for multicomponent diffusion, finite strain plasticity, and a convenient GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Today I want to report that a breakthrough in the simulation of phase transformations in multicomponent alloys has been achieved recently, which is implemented in the extension OPE-DIFF:

Full coupling with a thermodynamic database via the TQ-interface of ThermoCalc.

The coupling scheme is based on the local linearization of the equilibrium surfaces between phases, called the “quasi-equilibrium approach” [Eiken et al. Phys. Rev E 2006].

A new interpolation scheme has been developed, guaranteeing numerical stability and computational efficiency.

Simulations running within a few days on an up-to-date workstation with 8 cores and 64GB RAM will enable you to optimize alloy composition, solidification conditions and heat treatments.

Further processing of the materials under various loading conditions can be simulated by utilizing the mechanics module OPE-MECH, which enables testing of a material’s mechanical performance. For more details, visit www.OpenPhase-solutions.com.

Finally, I would like to encourage all users of OpenPhase to tag their simulation results with our logo in presentations and publications. More information can be found here.