4. Macroscale simulation

The physical phenomena involved in the operation of industrial materials are characterized by a wide range of space and time scales. Numerical simulations are available to predict phenomena that occur on a macroscopic scale, i.e. the scale of the product. Phenomena occurring on the microscopic scale, such as those related to the material's microstructure, are then modeled globally in the material behavior model. In this way, neither the microstructure nor the phenomena are explicitly represented; only their influence on macroscopic quantities at the level of a volume element is taken into account. In continuum mechanics, for example, these quantities are stresses and strains, and models of elasticity, plasticity, viscosity, damage, etc. are used for this purpose.

An important simulation for materials is thermodynamic calculations and phase diagrams. CALPHAD (CALculation...