Including state-of-the-art physical understanding of thermal vacancies in Calphad models

A physically sound thermochemical model accounting for explicit thermal vacancies in elements and alloys is presented. The model transfers the latest theoretical understanding of vacancy formation into the Calphad formalism where it can extend currently available thermodynamic databases to cover vacancy concentrations without a complete re-assessment. The parametrization of the model is based on ab initio-calculated enthalpy of vacancy formation and two model parameters describing the excess heat capacity of vacancy formation. Excellent agreement is obtained with temperature-dependent vacancy concentrations and elemental heat capacities while reasonable extrapolation of phase stability to high temperatures is ensured. Extrapolation to multicomponent systems is reasonable and the long-standing Neumann–Kopp related problem in the Calphad community is solved since multicomponent solid solutions will no longer show fingerprints of elemental heat capacity peaks at their melting points. FCC-Ag, FCC-Al and FCC-Cu, FCC-Zn, FCC-Ni, BCC-Ti, and BCC-W are used as a demonstration, along with the Cu–Zn binary system.