Large-scale three-dimensional simulation of Ostwald ripening

Large-scale three-dimensional simulations of Ostwald ripening were carried out using a multiphase-field model for accurate and efficient computation of multiparticle diffusional interaction in order to clarify coarsening kinetics in systems with finite particle fractions. The simulations were performed on 4003 grid systems in a particle fraction range of 0.25–0.86, where the initial microstructures with 20,000–100,000 solid particles in a liquid matrix evolve into structures with 1500–3000 particles. The simulation results were carefully analyzed and compared with those from the previous simulations and experiments, which have data range relevant to the present simulation range. The present results are in excellent agreement with the simulations by Akaiwa and Voorhees at low particle volume fractions, with the recent results from the 3-D reconstruction of serial sections at high fractions and with the grain size distribution of ideal grain growth at very high fractions.