Modeling the microstructural evolution of Ni-base superalloys by phase field method combined with CALPHAD and CVM

A quantitative simulation with phase field method (PFM) in a real alloy system was performed with a new strategy of modeling the microstructure evolution of Ni-base superalloys, in which, the calculation of phase diagrams (CALPHAD) method and cluster variation method (CVM) are combined with the PFM. In this strategy, the four sub-lattice model is used to evaluate the chemical free energy density while CVM to calculate some parameters, such as the lattice misfit and gradient coefficients in phase field equations. With this strategy, the microstructure evolution of a Ni–Al binary alloy at the temperature of 1000 K has been simulated; the elastic energy due to the lattice misfit and elastic inhomogeneity between γ and γ′ phases has also been taken into account. Moreover, the directional coarsening phenomenon of Ni–Al alloy has been reoccurred when the various external stress conditions are applied, which shows good agreement with Pineau’s directional coarsening map.