Phase-field simulation of 2-D Ostwald ripening in the high volume fraction regime Original Research Article

The microstructural evolution and kinetics of Ostwald ripening were studied in the high volume fraction regime by numerically solving the time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau (TDGL) and Cahn–Hilliard equations. It is shown that the growth exponent m is equal to 3, independent of the volume fraction, and the kinetic coefficient k increases as the volume fraction increases. The shape of size distributions changes significantly with increasing volume fraction of the coarsening phase; the skewness changes continuously from negative to positive while the kurtosis decreases in the low fraction regime and increases in the high volume fraction regime.