Solidification in syntectic and monotectic systems.

We present theoretical studies of syntectic and monotectic solidification scenarios. Steady-state solidification along the liquid-liquid interface in a syntectic system is considered by means of a boundary-integral technique developed previously. We study the case of small asymmetry of the pattern and extract from the results the scaling relations in terms of the undercooling and the asymmetry parameter. We also investigate monotectic solidification using the phase-field method. We present two kinds of two-phase fingers, with the solid phase being either the exterior phase or the interior phase, and the pattern corresponding to the growth along the solid-liquid interface. We finally analyze the asymptotic shape of these new morphologies far behind their tip.

Solidification along the interface between demixed liquids in monotectic systems.

The steady-state solidification along the liquid-liquid interface in the monotectic system is discussed. A boundary-integral formulation describing the diffusion in the two liquid phases is given and the corresponding equations for the three interfaces (two solid-liquid interfaces and one liquid-liquid interface) are solved. Scaling relations are extracted from the results and supported by analytic arguments in the limit of small deviation from the monotectic temperature. We present also a complementary phase-field simulation, which proves the stability of the process.

Brittle fracture in viscoelastic materials as a pattern-formation process.

A continuum model of crack propagation in brittle viscoelastic materials is presented and discussed. Thereby, the phenomenon of fracture is understood as an elastically induced nonequilibrium interfacial pattern formation process. In this spirit, a full description of a propagating crack provides the determination of the entire time dependent shape of the crack surface, which is assumed to be extended over a finite and self-consistently selected length scale. The mechanism of crack propagation, that is, the motion of the crack surface, is then determined through linear nonequilibrium transport equations. Here we consider two different mechanisms, a first-order phase transformation and surface diffusion. We give scaling arguments showing that steady-state solutions with a self-consistently selected propagation velocity and crack shape can exist provided that elastodynamic or viscoelastic effects are taken into account, whereas static elasticity alone is not sufficient. In this respect, inertial effects as well as viscous damping are identified to be sufficient crack tip selection mechanisms. Exploring the arising description of brittle fracture numerically, we study steady-state crack propagation in the viscoelastic and inertia limit as well as in an intermediate regime, where both effects are important. The arising free boundary problems are solved by phase field methods and a sharp interface approach using a multipole expansion technique. Different types of loading, mode I, mode III fracture, as well as mixtures of them, are discussed.

Growth of a two-phase finger in eutectics systems.

We present a theoretical study of the growth of a two-phase finger in eutectic systems. This pattern was observed experimentally by Akamatsu and Faivre [Phys. Rev. E 61, 3757 (2000)]. We study this two-phase finger using a boundary-integral formulation and we complement our investigation by a phase-field validation of the stability of the pattern. The deviations from the eutectic temperature and from the eutectic concentration provide two independent control parameters, leading to very different patterns depending on their relative importance. We propose scaling laws for the velocity and the different length scales of the pattern.

Pattern formation during diffusional transformations in the presence of triple junctions and elastic effects.

We compare different scenarios for dendritic melting of alloys with respect to the front propagation velocity. In contrast to conventional dendritic growth, selection can here be also due to the presence of a grain boundary or coherence strains, and the propagation speed is higher. The most favorable situation is partial melting, where two parabolic fronts, one melting and one solidifying interface, are moving together, since the process is then determined by diffusion in the thin liquid layer. There, and also in phase field simulations of melting in peritectic and eutectic systems, we observe a rotation of the triple junction relative to the growth direction. Finally, we discuss the role of elastic effects due to density and structural differences on solid-state phase transformations, and we find that they significantly alter the selection principles. In particular, we obtain free dendritic growth even with isotropic surface tension. This is investigated by Green's function methods and a phase field approach for growth in a channel and illustrated for the formation of a twin phase.

Crack growth by surface diffusion in viscoelastic media.

We discuss steady state crack growth in the spirit of a free boundary problem. It turns out that mode I and mode III situations are very different from each other: In particular, mode III exhibits a pronounced transition towards unstable crack growth at higher driving forces, and the behavior close to the Griffith point is determined entirely through crack surface dissipation, whereas in mode I the fracture energy is renormalized due to a remaining finite viscous dissipation. Intermediate mixed-mode scenarios allow steady state crack growth with higher velocities than for pure mode I.

Theory of dendritic growth in the presence of lattice strain.

We discuss elastic effects due to lattice strain which are a new key ingredient in the theory of dendritic growth for solid-solid transformations. Both thermal and elastic fields are eliminated by Green's function techniques, and a closed nonlinear integro-differential equation for the evolution of the interface is derived. We find dendritic patterns even without the anisotropy of the surface energy required by classical dendritic growth theory. In this sense, elastic effects serve as a new selection mechanism.

Velocity selection problem in the presence of the triple junction.

Melting of a bicrystal along the grain boundary is discussed. A triple junction plays a crucial role in the velocity selection problem in this case. In some range of the parameters an entirely analytical solution of this problem is given. This allows us to present a transparent picture of the structure of the selection theory. We also discuss the selection problem in the case of the growth of a "eutectoid dendrite."

Phase field modeling of fracture and stress-induced phase transitions.

We present a continuum theory to describe elastically induced phase transitions between coherent solid phases. In the limit of vanishing elastic constants in one of the phases, the model can be used to describe fracture on the basis of the late stage of the Asaro-Tiller-Grinfeld instability. Starting from a sharp interface formulation we derive the elastic equations and the dissipative interface kinetics. We develop a phase field model to simulate these processes numerically; in the sharp interface limit, it reproduces the desired equations of motion and boundary conditions. We perform large scale simulations of fracture processes to eliminate finite-size effects and compare the results to a recently developed sharp interface method. Details of the numerical simulations are explained, and the generalization to multiphase simulations is presented.

Crack propagation as a free boundary problem.

A sharp interface model of crack propagation as a phase transition process is discussed. We develop a multipole expansion technique to solve this free boundary problem numerically. We obtain steady state solutions with a self-consistently selected propagation velocity and shape of the crack, provided that elastodynamic effects are taken into account. Also, we find a saturation of the steady state crack velocity below the Rayleigh speed, tip blunting with increasing driving force, and a tip splitting instability above a critical driving force.

Condensation and vortex formation in a Bose gas upon cooling.

The mechanism for the transition of a Bose gas to the superfluid state via thermal fluctuations is considered. It is shown that in the process of external cooling some critical fluctuations (instantons) are formed above the critical temperature. The probability of the instanton formation is calculated in the three- and two-dimensional cases. It is found that this probability increases as the system approaches the transition temperature. It is shown that the evolution of an individual instanton is impossible without the formation of vortices in its superfluid part.

Crack propagation in viscoelastic solids.

We study crack propagation in a viscoelastic solid. Using simple arguments, we derive equations for the velocity dependence of the crack-tip radius, a (v) , and for the energy per unit area to propagate the crack, G (v) . For a viscoelastic modulus E (omega) which increases as omega(1-s) (0< s< 1) in the transition region between the rubbery region and the glassy region, we find that a (v) approximately G (v) approximately v(alpha) with alpha= (1-s) / (2-s) . The theory is in good agreement with experiment.

Fracture and friction: Stick-slip motion.

We discuss the stick-slip motion of an elastic block sliding along a rigid substrate. We argue that for a given external shear stress this system shows a discontinuous nonequilibrium transition from a uniform stick state to uniform sliding at some critical stress which is nothing but the Griffith threshold for crack propagation. An inhomogeneous mode of sliding occurs when the driving velocity is prescribed instead of the external stress. A transition to homogeneous sliding occurs at a critical velocity, which is related to the critical stress. We solve the elastic problem for a steady-state motion of a periodic stick-slip pattern and derive equations of motion for the tip and resticking end of the slip pulses. In the slip regions we use the linear friction law and do not assume any intrinsic instabilities even at small sliding velocities. We find that, as in many other pattern forming system, the steady-state analysis itself does not select uniquely all the internal parameters of the pattern, especially the primary wavelength. Using some plausible analogy to first-order phase transitions we discuss a "soft" selection mechanism. This allows to estimate internal parameters such as crack velocities, primary wavelength and relative fraction of the slip phase as functions of the driving velocity. The relevance of our results to recent experiments is discussed.

Grinfeld instability on crack surfaces.

The surface of a propagating crack is shown to be morphologically unstable because of the nonhydrostatic stresses near the surface (Asaro-Tiller-Grinfeld instability). We find numerically that the energy of a wavy crack becomes smaller than the energy of a straight crack if the crack length exceeds a critical length L(c)=5.18 L(G) (L(G) is the Griffith length). We analyze the dynamic evolution of this instability, governed by surface diffusion or condensation and evaporation. It turns out that the curvature of the crack surface becomes divergent near the crack tips. This implies that the widely used condition of the disappearance of K(II), the stress intensity factor of the sliding mode, is replaced by the more general requirement of matching chemical potentials of the crack surfaces at the tips. The results are generalized to situations of different external loading.

Dewetting hydrodynamics in 1+1 dimensions.

A model for the phase transition between partial wetting and dewetting of a substrate has been formulated that explicitly incorporates the hydrodynamic flow during the dewetting process in 1+1 dimensions. The model simulates a fluid layer of finite thickness on a substrate in coexistence with a dry part of the substrate and a gas phase above the substrate. Under nonequilibrium "dewetting" conditions, the front between the dry part and the wet part of the surface moves towards the wet part inducing hydrodynamic flow inside the wet layer. In more general terms, the model handles two immiscible fluids with a freely movable interface in an inhomogeneous external force field. Handling the interface by a new variant of the phase-field model, we obtain an efficient code with well-defined interfacial properties. In particular, the (free) energy can be chosen at will. We demonstrate that our model works well in the viscosity range of creeping flow and we give qualitative results for the higher Reynolds numbers. Connections to experimental realizations are discussed.

Epitaxial growth with elastic interaction: submonolayer island formation.

A model for island formation in submonolayer epitaxy has been studied in the presence of elastic strain by means of a Monte Carlo simulation. The description, based on rate equations, leads to scaling predictions for cluster statistics and diffusion rates. We generalize these predictions to include the effects of the repulsive elastic interaction. The elastic interaction is caused by the deformation of the underlying substrate and has a repulsive 1/r(3) character. To enable the efficient simulation of multiparticle surface diffusion with long-range interaction, we employ a multigrid scheme. One particular result is that, with increasing elastic repulsion between the adsorbed particles, the formation of islands is hampered, and island nucleation is deferred to higher coverage values.

Coarsening of cracks in a uniaxially strained solid.

We discuss the stress relaxation in a uniaxially strained solid due to the coarsening of a system of parallel cracks. We emphasize similarities and differences of this process to Ostwald ripening in a first order phase transition. A conventional mean-field approximation breaks down and several independent length scales have to be taken into account. Strong elastic interactions between the cracks determine the growth behavior. We derive scaling laws for the coarsening of the different length scales involved and the time evolution of stress relaxation, finally leading to the equilibrium state of a fractured body. The characteristic size of the cracks grows linearly in time which is much faster than in usual Ostwald ripening.

Nonlinear theory of dislocations in smectic crystals: an exact solution.

It is shown that the strain field of an edge dislocation in a smectic crystal must be described in the framework of nonlinear theory, even far away from the core region. We present an exact solution of this nonlinear problem. The result of the linear theory is recovered in the limit of large bending rigidity.

Fractal growth of epitaxial surface clusters with elastic interaction.

The fractal growth of clusters adsorbed on crystal surfaces has been studied by Monte Carlo simulations. Elastic interactions between the atoms through the substrate have been included. Attractive and repulsive interaction potentials 1/r(3) have been used, including a varying cutoff for the range of interaction. As an important result we find that there exists a crossover radius beyond which the fractal dimension of the cluster corresponds to the fractal dimension of conventional two-dimensional diffusion limited aggregation. The crossover radius itself and the properties of the cluster inside that radius depend sensitively on the details of the interaction. The results have been analyzed by a scaling theory. Furthermore, we have implemented a multigrid scheme which allows for very efficient simulation of a large number of mobile atoms with long-range interaction on the surface.