Monday, May 23, 2005Volume 5, Issue 3
Shenyang Hu
Advisor: Professor Long-Qing Chen
Department of Materials Science & Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Phase-field Models of Microstructure Evolution in System with Elastic Inhomogeneity and Defects
Many of the important properties of a material can be engineered by controlling its solid-state phase transformations and the accompanying microstructure evolution. One of the main factors that determine the kinetics of phase transformations and microstructure evolution is the elastic energy due to lattice distortions around structure defects such as dislocations and free surfaces, as well as due to the lattice mismatch and the difference of elastic properties among different phases. In this work, a number of phase-field-based computational models were developed for predicting microstructure evolution during various solid-state processes including phase separation in elastically inhomogeneous systems, ferroelectric domain evolution and phase patterning in the presence of interfacial dislocations in thin films, as well as precipitation microstructure evolution Al-alloys.
