I have just attended the virtual DGM meeting which is concluded by the award presentation. My congratulations go to Katharina Esleben from University of Siegen and her co-authors, who have received the Werner-Köster award for their article Effect of Cr and Ni on the microstructural evolution in Co–Re–Cr–Ni alloys in the International Journal of Materials Research! In the article, the author group used a database developed in Siegen to better understand phase formation in this high-temperature alloy, which was characterized by advanced techniques ranging from DSC, SEM and TEM to in-situ Neutron Diffraction up to 1450°C (yes, °C, not °F or K!).
This is just another example of FactSage being extremely popular in the scientific literature. To give another example: recently, co-developers In-Ho Jung and Marie-Aline Van Ende have been invited by the editorial team of the prestigous Metallurgical and Materials Transactions Journals to contribute with a publication on FactSage for the Metallurgical and Materials Transactions 50th Anniversary Collection. The paper is entitled “Computational Thermodynamic Calculations: FactSage from CALPHAD Thermodynamic Database to Virtual Process Simulation” and gives an overview on database development to application calculations. In-Ho and Marie-Aline have analyzed and modelled many (maybe: all?) processes relevant for steel-making using FactSage and ChemApp. I believe FactSage- and ChemApp-based process models must form the “brain” of any smart factory and if you want to know why – please read their section on “Process Simulation and Smart Factory”!
Talking about FactSage in literature: The 2009 paper on FactSage has received the 1000th citation this year according to Web of Science, while the 2016 paper on FactSage has just made it to the top ten of most cited CALPHAD papers, being the third FactSage paper in this distinguished list. And Prof. Arthur Pelton and co-authors even lead the list of most-cited articles in Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B with over 400 citations of their article “The modified quasichemical model I – Binary solutions“.
Enjoy reading!