Phase field simulation of spinodal decomposition under external magnetic field

A computational model was developed to simulate the spinodal decomposition process of ferromagnetic alloys under an external magnetic field. In this model, the temporal evolution of the modulated structure was described by a phase field method, and the magnetic configuration was solved by using a micromagnetic method. The spinodal decomposition and coarsening processes of a single magnetic particle and an A–B hypothetical system under an external magnetic field were simulated using the proposed model. The simulation results show that the precipitated particles were elongated along the direction of the external magnetic field. The dependence of the modulated structure of an A–B hypothetic system on external magnetic field is much more sensitive than that of the single particle structure. The simulation results also demonstrate that the modulation of the external magnetic field is effective even if the spinodal decomposition has been completed and a stable modulated structure was formed.