HomeAerospace Engineering & Orbital MechanicsWidmanstätten Pattern 2D: Diffusion-Front Cross-Section

Widmanstätten Pattern 2D: Diffusion-Front Cross-Section

Interactive 2D simulator of Widmanstätten pattern formation via a real diffusion-controlled moving-boundary (Stefan problem) model: it numerically integrates Fick's second law for the Ni concentration field ahead of the growing kamacite/taenite interface and draws the etched polished-section micrograph and the concentration profile it predicts.

Aerospace Engineering & Orbital Mechanics2DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version
2d-space-metals ↗ Open standalone

This is a 2D companion to the 3D Widmanstätten pattern simulator, built around a genuinely different, deeper piece of physics: instead of applying the empirical Wood (1964) spacing formula directly, it numerically solves the diffusion-controlled moving-boundary problem (a Stefan problem) that formula actually comes from. A finite-difference solver integrates Fick's second law for the Ni concentration field ahead of each growing kamacite interface, and the interface itself only advances when the Stefan mass-balance condition at its boundary is satisfied — so the polished-section micrograph and the concentration-profile strip beneath it are the literal output of that integration, frame by frame, as the parent asteroid core cools from a molten 900 °C down toward the ~400 °C point where diffusion becomes too slow to move nickel any further.

⚙ Under the hood

A 2D companion to the Widmanstätten pattern simulator that numerically solves the real diffusion-controlled moving-boundary (Stefan) problem behind lamella growth: it integrates Fick's second law for the Ni concentration field ahead of the kamacite/taenite interface and draws the etched cross-section and its concentration profile as literal output of that computation.

meteoritesmetallurgyphase diagramdiffusionStefan problemfinite difference

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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