The paper presents the potential of an efficient front tracking method on a fixed control-volume grid in micro-macroscopic numerical modeling of both binary alloy solidification and a solid-liquid phase transition of single-component or doped optically functioning materials. In the former case, the method, basing on the assumption that an envelope of columnar dendrite tips moves locally according to a single crystal growth law, allows more precise identification of zones of different dendritic structures developing within the two-phase region, and thus more detailed analysis of some closing models. It is shown, by exploiting the commonly used benchmark problem that a porous medium model of the columnar mush must be carefully chosen since it strongly affects the predicted macro-segregation pattern. In the case of solidification of a single-component or doped semi-transparent material the combination of the front tracking method with the immersed boundary technique provides a new simulation method, which can handle different thermo-physical and optical properties of liquid and solid phases, processes of emission, absorption, reflection and refraction or transmission of thermal radiation at a diffusive or specular distinct solid-liquid interface detected by the front tracking technique. The method has been used in a detailed parametric analysis where the impact of different optical configurations of both phases and their various optical properties as well as variable transmissivity of solid-liquid interface on the phase change process development has been addressed.. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.