Multi-scale and multi-physics simulations, such as the computational modeling of crystal growth processes, will benefit from the modular coupling of existing codes rather than the development of monolithic, single-application software. An effective coupling approach, the approximate block Newton approach (ABN), is developed and applied to the steady-state computation of crystal growth in an electrodynamic gradient freeze system. Specifically, the code CrysMAS is employed for furnace-scale heat transfer computations and is coupled with the code Cats2D to calculate melt fluid dynamics and phase-change phenomena. The ABN coupling strategy proves to be vastly more reliable and cost efficient than simpler coupling methods for this problem and is a promising approach for future crystal growth models. (C) 2009 Elsevier By. All rights reserved.