Nucleation of second-phase near elastic defects in crystalline solids

TL;DR

This paper investigates how elastic defects like dislocations or cracks influence the nucleation of second-phase materials in crystalline solids, using a Ginzburg-Landau model coupled with elasticity and numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled Ginzburg-Landau and elasticity model to study heterogeneous nucleation near elastic defects in crystalline solids.

Findings

Elastic defects promote second-phase nucleation.

The model captures the interaction between elastic fields and phase transition.

Numerical results reveal the nature of phase transition near defects.

Abstract

The problem of heterogeneous nucleation of second-phase in alloys in the vicinity of elastic defects is considered. The defect can be a dislocation line or a crack tip residing in a crystalline solid. We use the Ginzburg-Landau equation to describe the spatiotemporal evolution of the order parameter in the environs of the defect. The model accounts for the elasticity of the solid and the interaction of order parameter field with the elastic field of the defect. A finite volume numerical method is used to solve the governing partial differential equation for the order parameter. We examine the nature of the phase transition in the vicinity of the defects.