Effect of magneto-mechanical synergism in the process-structure correlation in Fe–C alloys: A phase-field modeling approach

Abstract

Applied magnetic fields can alter phase equilibria and kinetics in steels; however, quantitatively resolving how magnetic, chemical, and elastic driving forces jointly influence the microstructure remains challenging. We develop a quantitative magneto-mechanically coupled phase-field model for the Fe–C system that couples a CALPHAD-based chemical free energy with demagnetization-field magnetostatics and microelasticity. The model reproduces single- and multi-particle evolution during the α → γ inverse transformation at 1023 K under external fields up to 20 T, including ellipsoidal morphologies observed experimentally at 8 T. Chemically driven growth is isotropic; a magnetic interaction introduces an anisotropic driving force that elongates γ precipitates along the field into ellipsoids, while elastic coherency promotes faceting, yielding elongated cuboidal or “brick-like” particles under combined magneto-elastic coupling. Growth kinetics increase with C content, and decrease with field strength and misfit strain. Multi-particle simulations reveal dipolar interaction-mediated coalescence for field-parallel neighbors and ripening for field-perpendicular neighbors. Incorporating field-dependent diffusivity from experiment slows kinetics as expected; a first-principles-motivated anisotropic diffusivity correction is estimated to be small (<2%). These results establish a process-structure link for magnetically assisted heat treatments of Fe–C alloys and provide guidance for microstructure control via chemo-magneto-mechanical synergism.