Phase field computations for surface diffusion and void electromigration in {\mathbb{R}^3}

We consider a finite element approximation of a phase field model for the evolution of voids by surface diffusion in an electrically conducting solid. The phase field equations are given by a degenerate Cahn–Hilliard equation with an external forcing induced by the electric field. We describe the iterative scheme used to solve the resulting nonlinear discrete equations and present some numerical experiments in three space dimensions. The first author was supported by the EPSRC grant EP/C548973/1.