Temperature dependent vacancy formation energy of metallic materials

Knowledge of vacancy formation energy (VFE) for metallic materials at different temperatures is of fundamental importance. In the present study, following Brook's method and cohesive energy theory, two temperature dependent VFE models of metallic materials are developed based on our previous studies. The developed models are validated using the available experimental and simulation results. Agreement is good between model predictions and corresponding available experimental and simulation results. This study indicates that the VFE firstly remains approximately constant and then goes down almost linearly with increase of temperature. Furthermore, this work can provide simple and effective methods to calculate VFE of metallic materials at different temperatures, and can help understand the fundamental mechanisms which control the decrease of VFE at high temperatures.