In the frame of this work, a new comprehensive phase-field model has been developed which is specially designed for numerical simulation of microstructure formation of alloys during technical solidification processes. Its universal formulation makes it applicable to a multitude of different processes and alloys with an arbitrary number of components, thermodynamic phases and grains in 2D and 3D. The kinetic equations, which describe the time evolution of the microstructure, have been consistently derived from a free energy functional under consideration of all multiphase, polycrystalline and multicomponent interactions. Anisotropy is taken into account for both the interfacial mobilities and the interfacial energies. Cubic and hexagonal lattice symmetries can be modeled by using specifically formulated anisotropy functions.weiterlesen