CALPHAD

CALPHAD stands for CALculation of PHAse Diagrams, a methodology introduced in 1970 by Larry Kaufman. An equilibrium phase diagram is usually a diagram with axes for temperature and composition of a chemical system. It shows the regions where substances or solutions (i.e. phases) are stable and regions where two or more of them coexist. Phase diagrams are a very powerful tool for predicting the state of a system under different conditions and were initially a graphical method to rationalize experimental information on states of equilibrium. In complex systems, computational methods such as CALPHAD are employed to model thermodynamic properties for each phase and simulate multicomponent phase behavior. The CALPHAD approach is based on the fact that a phase diagram is a manifestation of the equilibrium thermodynamic properties of the system, which are the sum of the properties of the individual phases. It is thus possible to calculate a phase diagram by first assessing the thermodynamic properties of all the phases in a system. With the CALPHAD method one collects all experimental information on phase equilibria in a system and all thermodynamic information obtained from thermochemical and thermophysical studies. The thermodynamic properties of each phase are then described with a mathematical model containing adjustable parameters. The parameters are evaluated by optimizing the fit of the model to all the information, also involving coexisting phases. It is then possible to recalculate the phase diagram as well as the thermodynamic properties of all the phases. The philosophy of the CALPHAD method is to obtain a consistent description of the phase diagram and the thermodynamic properties so to reliably predict the set of stable phases and their thermodynamic properties in regions without experimental information and for metastable states during simulations of phase transformations. There are two crucial factors for the success of the CALPHAD method. The first factor is to find realistic as well as convenient mathematical models for the Gibbs energy for each phase.