No Arabic abstract
A continuum field theory approach is presented for modeling elastic and plastic deformation, free surfaces and multiple crystal orientations in non-equilibrium processing phenomena. Many basic properties of the model are calculated analytically and numerical simulations are presented for a number of important applications including, epitaxial growth, material hardness, grain growth, reconstructive phase transitions and crack propagation.
We report a method for describing plasticity in a broad class of amorphous materials. The method is based on nonlinear (geometric) deformation theory allowing the separation of the plastic deformation from the general deformation tensor. This separation allows an adequate pattern of thermodynamical phenomena for plastic deformations in polymers to be constructed. A parameter describing the stress relaxation rate of the material is introduced within the frame of this approach. Additionally, several experimental configurations to measure this parameter are discussed.
Soft elastic composite materials can serve as actuators when they transform changes in external fields into mechanical deformation. Here, we address the corresponding deformational behavior of magnetic gels and elastomers, consisting of magnetizable colloidal particles in a soft polymeric matrix and exposed to external magnetic fields. Since many practical realizations of such materials involve particulate inclusions of polydisperse size distributions, we concentrate on the effect that mixed particle sizes have on the overall deformational response. To perform a systematic study, our focus is on binary size distributions. We systematically vary the fraction of larger particles relative to smaller ones and characterize the resulting magnetostrictive behavior. The consequences for systems of various different spatial particle arrangements and different degrees of compressibility of the elastic matrix are evaluated. In parts, we observe a qualitative change in the overall response for selected systems of mixed particle sizes. Specifically, overall changes in volume and relative elongations or contractions in response to an induced magnetization can be reversed into the opposite types of behavior. Our results should apply to the characteristics of other soft elastic composite materials like electrorheological gels and elastomers when exposed to external electric fields as well. Overall, we hope to stimulate the further investigation on the purposeful use of mixed particle sizes as a means to design tailored requested material behavior.
We report on a novel extension of the recent phase-field crystal (PFC) method introduced in [Elder et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 88, 245701:1-4 (2002)], which incorporates elastic interactions as well as crystal plasticity and diffusive dynamics. In our model, elastic interactions are mediated through wave modes that propagate on time scales many orders of magnitude slower than atomic vibrations but still much faster than diffusive times scales. This allows us to preserve the quintessential advantage of the PFC model: the ability to simulate atomic-scale interactions and dynamics on time scales many orders of magnitude longer than characteristic vibrational time scales. We demonstrate the two different modes of propagation in our model and show that simulations of grain growth and elasto-plastic deformation are consistent with the microstructural properties of nanocrystals.
We report on a novel and flexible experiment to investigate the non-equilibrium melting behaviour of model crystals made from charged colloidal spheres. In a slit geometry polycrystalline material formed in a low salt region is driven by hydrostatic pressure up an evolving gradient in salt concentration and melts at large salt concentration. Depending on particle and initial salt concentration, driving velocity and the local salt concentration complex morphologic evolution is observed. Crystal-melt interface positions and the melting velocity are obtained quantitatively from time resolved Bragg- and polarization microscopic measurements. A simple theoretical model predicts the interface to first advance, then for balanced drift and melting velocities to become stationary at a salt concentration larger than the equilibrium melting concentration. It also describes the relaxation of the interface to its equilibrium position in a stationary gradient after stopping the drive in different manners. We further discuss the influence of the gradient strength on the resulting interface morphology and a shear induced morphologic transition from polycrystalline to oriented single crystalline material before melting.
We report the observation of the homogenous nucleation of crystals in a dense layer of steel spheres confined between two horizontal plates vibrated vertically. Above a critical vibration amplitude, two-layer crystals with square symmetry were found to coexist in steady state with a surrounding granular liquid. By analogy to equilibrium hard sphere systems, the phase behavior can be explained through entropy maximization. However, dramatic non-equilibrium effects are present, including a significant difference in the granular temperatures of the two phases.