Two-dimensional simulation of reactive diffusion in binary systems

Abstract Very recently the authors have shown (Svoboda and Fischer, 2013) that the concept of reactive diffusion can successfully be applied to the simulation of one-dimensional diffusive phase transformations in binary systems. The concept is now generalized to two dimensions and used for simulations of diffusive phase transformations in multi-phase binary systems. The kinetics of two systems with different starting configurations and kinetic coefficients is simulated. The simulations show that the concept is robust and the interfaces remain sharp. The comparison with the well-known Cahn–Hilliard phase field method indicates that the present reactive diffusion concept represents a special case of the Cahn–Hilliard phase field method with an infinite value of the interface mobility and zero interface energy. The reactive diffusion concept is, thus, applicable to cases, where the changes of the volume fraction of individual phases dominate their coarsening.