| By extending the diagrams of materials science, the field is broadened in a natural way. For example, binary phase diagrams are like black boxes, used in the design and simulation of microstructures. They explore a balance of two chemical species, but real alloys have several chemical species, and merit a higher dimensional space. The n-dimensional extension is simplified by dividing the problem into discrete and continuous components.;"Discrete" is the identification of behavioural regimes, and their interactions, in a network graph. "Continuous" includes the curvature of boundaries, and the motion through the space. In thermochemical phase spaces, a homogenous alloy is mapped to a particle, whose motion represents the evolution of the alloy. Likewise, non-homogeneous alloys evolve as multidimensional continua.;The classical diagrams may also be hybridized. For example, TTT-curves may be treated as extra dimensions of a thermochemical phase space; the resulting hybrid synthesizes microstructural thermodynamics and kinetics. |
