Using Phase-Field Modeling With Adaptive Mesh Refinement To Study Elasto-Plastic Effects In Phase Transformations

Abstract

<p> This thesis details work done in the development of the phase field model which allows simulation of elasticity with diffuse interfaces and the extension of a thin interface analysis developed by previous authors to study non-dilute ideal alloys. These models are coupled with a new finite difference adaptive mesh algorithm to efficiently simulate a variety of physical systems. The finite difference adaptive mesh algorithm is shown to be at worse 4-5 times faster than an equivalent finite element method on a per node basis. In addition to this increase in speed for explicit solvers in the code, an iterative solver used to compute elastic fields is found to converge in O(N) time for a dynamically growing precipitate, where N is the number of nodes on the adaptive mesh. A previous phase field formulation is extended such as to make possible the study of non-ideal binary alloys with complex phase diagrams. A phase field model is also derived for a free energy that incorporates an elastic free energy and is used to investigate the competitive development of solid state structures in which the kinetic transfer rate of atoms from the parent phase to the precipitate phase is large. This results in the growth of solid state dendrites. The morphological effects of competing surface anisotropy and anisotropy in the elastic modulus tensor is analyzed. It is shown that the transition from surfaceenergy driven dendrites to elastically driven dendrites depends on the magnitudes of the surface energy anisotropy coefficient (E4 ) and the anisotropy of the elastic tensor (β) as well as on the super saturation of the particle and therefore to a specific Mullins-Sekerka onset radius. The transition point of this competitive process is predicted from these three controlling parameters. </p>