Exploiting Chemical Short-Range Order (CSRO) is a promising avenue for manipulating the properties of alloys. However, existing modeling frameworks are not sufficient to predict CSRO in multicomponent alloys (>3 components) in an efficient and reliable manner. In this work, we developed a hybrid computational thermodynamics framework by combining unique advantages from Cluster Variation Method (CVM) and CALculation of PHAse Diagram (CALPHAD) method. The key is to decompose the cumbersome cluster variables in CVM into fewer site variables of the basic cluster using the Fowler-Yang-Li (FYL) transform, which considerably reduces the number of variables that must be minimized for multicomponent systems. CSRO is incorporated into CALPHAD with a novel cluster-based solution model called FYL-CVM. This new framework brings more physics into CALPHAD while maintaining its practicality and achieves a good balance between accuracy and computational cost. It leverages statistical mechanics to yield a more physical description of configurational entropy and opens the door to cluster-based CALPHAD database development. The application of the FYL-CVM model in a prototype fcc AB alloy demonstrates its capability to calculate the phase diagram and thermodynamic properties with remarkable accuracy comparable to CVM. The hybrid CVM-CALPHAD framework represents a new methodology for thermodynamic modeling that enables atomic-scale order to be exploited for materials design.
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Analytically differentiable metrics for phase stability
In this work, a long-established but sparsely documented method of obtaining semi-analytic derivatives of thermodynamic properties with respect to equilibrium conditions is briefly reviewed and rigorously derived. This procedure is then leveraged to construct general forms of derivatives of the residual driving force, a metric for measuring phase stability used in CALPHAD model optimization, with respect to overall system and individual phase compositions. Applied examples – calculating heat capacity in the Al-Fe system, thermodynamic factors in the Nb-V-W system, and residual driving force derivatives in the Ni-Ti system – demonstrate the versatility, accuracy, and extensibility of this method. Using the developed method, residual driving force gradients can be applied directly in CALPHAD model optimizers, as well as in materials design frameworks, to identify regions of phase stability with an efficient, gradient-based approach.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2119103
- PAR ID:
- 10542586
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Calphad
- Volume:
- 86
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0364-5916
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 102705
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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