From Solidification to Battery Cycling: Predictive Multiphase-Field Modelling for Microstructural Evolution and Failure (03/03/26)
Speaker and Affliation:
Dr. Daniel Schneider
Deputy Head of unit, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
When?
3rd March, 2026 (Tuesday), 11.30 AM to 12.30 PM (India Standard Time)
Where
KPA Auditorium, Dept. of Materials Engineering, IISc, Bangalore
Abstract:
Microstructural evolution controls both performance and failure in structural and electrochemical materials. This talk presents a thermodynamically consistent multiphase-field (MPF) framework for the predictive simulation of coupled chemo-thermo-mechanical processes across different material classes. Starting from dendritic solidification during laser beam welding, the model captures morphology formation, micro-segregation, and stress evolution, enabling the assessment of solidification crack susceptibility. The same modelling philosophy is extended to electrochemical systems, where intercalation-induced phase transformations and eigenstrains drive mechanical degradation during battery cycling. By consistently coupling interfacial energies, diffusion, and mechanical jump conditions within a variational setting, the framework provides a unified description of microstructure formation and failure. The presented examples illustrate how physically grounded phase-field modelling can serve as a predictive tool linking process conditions, microstructure, and degradation mechanisms.