Applications of Multicomponent Databases to the Improvement of Steel Processing and Design

The steel industry is challenged to develop new and efficient alloys, from the application, energy and environmental points of view. Alternative materials, too, challenge steel in individual applications. The industry has successfully met these challenges in the last 150 years, at least. In the last decades, one of the tools that contributed to this success has been computational thermodynamics, an integral part of the expanding ICME toolbox. In this work, the important change in paradigm brought by computational thermodynamics to solving problems involving equilibrium in complex systems, as those present in the steel industry, is reviewed. Then, examples of applications to problems ranging from steelmaking to processing and alloy design are presented, highlighting the importance of multicomponent databases. The extension from equilibrium to kinetics is included in some examples. It is concluded that computational thermodynamics in the steel industry is mature and, while some limitations may persist in areas of kinetic modeling, these techniques will mature in the near future.