2. CALPHAD approach

In this section we present an approach commonly used in industry to describe the thermochemical interactions of multi-component systems for extended temperature and composition domains. The use of calculations based on elementary physical principles alone would not provide usable results in a reasonable timeframe compatible with industrial needs. To this end, a semi-empirical method was developed in the 1970s . It is based on the principle that a system at thermodynamic equilibrium is characterized by knowledge of the minimum in the Gibbs energy function that describes it.