Knowra Phase diagram Phase diagram A phase diagram maps which phases of a material are stable under different conditions, such as temperature, pressure, and composition. Its boundaries mark changes in phase stability.
Thermodynamic phase : A region of a material with uniform physical properties and structure, separated from other regions by phase boundaries. Each region on a phase diagram represents a distinct thermodynamic phase.
Phase rule : A relation connecting the degrees of freedom, components, and phases in an equilibrium system. It constrains how many independent variables a phase diagram can show.
Water phase diagram : A pressure–temperature map of stable ice, liquid water, and water vapor, including their coexistence boundaries. Water's multiple ice phases make its diagram unusually rich.
Alloy : A metallic material made from two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal. Alloy composition determines which phases form during processing.
Free-energy landscape : A representation of how a system's free energy varies with one or more structural or compositional variables. It explains stability microscopically, while a phase diagram summarizes stable regions.
Gibbs free energy : A thermodynamic potential that determines equilibrium at constant temperature and pressure. The stable phase is the one with the lowest Gibbs free energy under given conditions.
Lever rule : A mass-balance method for calculating phase proportions from positions within a two-phase region. It extracts the amounts of coexisting phases from a binary diagram.
Iron–carbon phase diagram : A temperature–composition map of phases in iron–carbon alloys, central to steel production. Its invariant reactions and phase fields guide heat treatment of steel.
Heat treatment : Controlled heating and cooling used to alter a material's microstructure and properties. Phase boundaries identify temperatures that enable transformations during treatment.
Kinetic phase diagram : A map of transformations accessible over finite times under specified processing conditions. Unlike equilibrium diagrams, it includes the effects of transformation rates.
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