Phase field modeling of microstructure evolution in steels

This article provides an overview on the application of phase field models to describe microstructure evolution in steels. The focus will be on phase field modeling of the austenite–ferrite transformation as this has emerged as a particularly active area of research in the past few years. Phase field models are powerful tools to deal with the complex morphologies, e.g. Widmanstätten ferrite, that may result from these transformations. Even though much progress has been attained there is still significant work to be done in applying these models to processing of advanced steels with complex multi-phase microstructures. In particular, the phase field approach promises to have significant impact on modeling of bainite formation and the microstructure evolution in the heat affected zone of welds.