A phase-field model for highly anisotropic interfacial energy

A computationally efficient phase-field model is developed for two-phase systems with anisotropic interfacial energy. The approach allows for anisotropies sufficiently high that the interface has corners or missing crystallographic orientations. The method employs a regularization that enforces local equilibrium at the corners and allows corners to be added or removed without explicitly tracking their location. Numerical simulations for various degrees of anisotropy were performed and they show excellent agreement with analytical equilibrium shapes and yield accurate time dependent solutions for a wide variety of initial conditions.