PhaseFieldFraktur

PhaseFieldFraktur is a modular open-source software framework for simulating phase-field models of microstructure evolution in materials. It provides a general formulation for multiphase, multicomponent systems and supports common phase-field equations such as Cahn-Hilliard and Allen-Cahn. The core objective is to enable researchers to build, compare, and benchmark phase-field models with minimal boilerplate.

The architecture separates mathematical model definition from numerical solvers. Users specify free energy functionals, mobility, and coupling terms; the framework discretizes the governing equations in space and time using finite element or spectral methods, with adaptive mesh refinement and implicit time stepping. The engine supports parallel execution on multi-core and distributed-memory platforms, and offers a Python API for problem setup, data extraction, and scripting workflows, alongside a high-performance C++ core. PhaseFieldFraktur includes utilities for initialization, boundary conditions, and analysis, as well as visualization-friendly output formats. It supports elasticity coupling, anisotropic surface energies, and multi-component diffusion, enabling simulations of grain growth, spinodal decomposition, solidification, and battery electrode processes.

Typical users are computational materials scientists and engineers. Development is community-driven, with documentation, tutorials, and example problems. The project emphasizes numerical stability, reproducibility, and interoperability with established data formats. See also: phase-field method, Cahn-Hilliard, Allen-Cahn.