Phase Field

In the formulation of the diffuse interfaceInterfacediffuse (Sect.  1.2 ), the order parameter \(\varphi \) characterizes the phase state. The order parameter is assigned the meaning of the phase field variable—a nonconserved scalar field characterizing the degree of disorder. In this section, the concept of a phase field is explained through its physical meaning and theoretical model classification. Methods for solving phase field problems finalize this chapter and the entire first part, which is devoted to determining the order parameter, the energy of the diffuse interfaceInterfacediffuse, and phase states.