Applications of the maximum entropy production principle to non-equilibrium solidification

Recently, maximum entropy production principle (MEPP) has been widely applied to physical, chemical and biological problems. MEPP, which is considered as a universal law for the evolution of non-equilibrium dissipative systems, means that the isolated non-equilibrium system will tend to the state with maximum entropy along the shortest possible path. Rapid solidification, a typical non-equilibrium process, has been adopted in industrial processes while the theoretical studies of solidification still focus on the near-equilibrium solidification. Thus, the applications of MEPP can motivate the development of non-equilibrium solidification theory, thus promote its application to industrial processes. This paper summaries recent applications of MEPP to non-equilibrium solidification, including interface kinetics and multi-phase-field model for binary alloys, interface kinetics, morphological stability and dendrite growth for multi-component alloys. In addition, the required thermodynamical process and correspondence to mathematic method has been detailed. In the end, research prospect of the MEPP is also forecasted.