Mixed-mode growth of a multicomponent precipitate in the quasi-steady state regime

An exact analytical solution of the Fick's second law was developed and applied to the mixed-mode growth of a multicomponent ellipsoidal precipitate growing with constant eccentricities in the quasi-stationary regime. The solution is exact if the nominal composition, equilibrium concentrations and material properties are assumed constant, and can be applied to compounds having no limitations in the number of components. The solution was compared to the solution calculated by a diffusion-controlled application software and it was found that the solute concentrations at the interface can be determined knowing only the nominal composition, the full equilibrium concentrations and the coefficients of diffusion. The thermodynamic calculations owing to find alternative tie-lines are proven to be useless in the mixed-mode model. From this, it appears that the search of alternative tie-lines is computationally counterproductive, even when the interface has a very high mobility. A more efficient computational scheme is possible by considering that a moving interface is not at equilibrium.