Modeling of Precipitation Coupled with Thermodynamic Calculations

International audienceA precipitation model is developed based on three physical mechanisms, ie nucleation, growth and coarsening of the precipitates. The model follows the particle size distribution by using a finite volume method. Inputs of thermodynamic data are required, such as the driving force for nucleation and equilibrium concentrations. An ideal dilute solution, an ideal solution and a model fully coupled with the thermodynamic calculation software Thermo-Calc®[l] are used to describe the Gibbs energy of the different phases. The influence of using these different thermodynamic approximation on the prediction of the precipitation model is studied