The phase equilibria in the Mg-Ni-Ca system

The three binary systems Mg-Ni, Ca-Ni and Mg-Ca have been re-optimized. A self-consistent thermodynamic database of the Mg-Ni-Ca system is constructed by combining the optimized parameters of these three constituent binaries. Lattice stability values are not added to the pure elements Mg-hcp, Ni-fcc, Ca-fcc and Ca-bcc to construct this database. The Redlich-Kister polynomial model is used to describe the liquid and the terminal solid solution phases, and the sublattice model is used to describe the non-stoichiometric phase, in this system. The constructed database is used to calculate the three binary and the ternary systems. The calculated binary phase diagrams along with their thermodynamic properties such as Gibbs energy, enthalpy, entropy and activities are found to be in good agreement with experimental data from the literature. This is the first attempt to construct the ternary phase diagram of the Mg-Ni-Ca system. The established database for this system predicted three ternary eutectic, five ternary quasi-peritectic, two ternary peritectic and two saddle points. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.