Three-dimensional phase-field simulation of microstructural evolution in three-phase materials with different interfacial energies and different diffusivities

The coarsening behavior of three-phase materials, such as eutectic alloys, is of high technological interest. In this study, 3D ternary three-phase polycrystalline materials were modeled to study the effect of bulk diffusion and phase arrangement on the coarsening kinetics. The diffusion mobilities were defined to be different in the three phases. By varying the phase boundary and grain boundary energies, microstructures with different phase arrangements were obtained, in which the different types of grains had a tendency to alternate or cluster. In all cases, a regime was reached where the average grain size follows a power growth law with growth exponent $$n=3$$ , indicating bulk diffusion-controlled coarsening. The overall growth rate and that of the individual phases were clearly affected by the phase arrangement, the magnitude of the phase boundary energy and the diffusion mobilities of the different phases. In all cases, the phase with the lowest diffusion mobility showed the highest growth rate and on average a larger number of grain faces. While the average number of grain faces became constant in time in systems with constant grain boundary energy, the average number of grain faces continued to increase during the whole simulation time when the grain boundary energy was misorientation dependent.