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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Microscale Simulation Of Martensitic Microstructure Evolution, Valery I. Levitas, Alexander V. Idesman, Dean L. Preston Sep 2004

Microscale Simulation Of Martensitic Microstructure Evolution, Valery I. Levitas, Alexander V. Idesman, Dean L. Preston

Valery I. Levitas

A new model for the evolution of multivariant martensitic microstructure in single crystals and polycrystals is developed. In contrast with Landau-Ginzburg models, which are limited in practice to nanoscale specimens, this new scale-free model is valid for length scales greater than 100 nm and without an upper bound. It is based on a thermodynamic potential in the volume fractions of the martensitic variants that exhibits an instability resulting in microstructure formation. Simulated microstructures in elastic single crystals and polycrystals under uniaxial loading are in qualitative agreement with those observed experimentally.


Reliable First-Principles Alloy Thermodynamics Via Truncated Cluster Expansions, Nikolai A. Zarkevich, Duane D. Johnson Jun 2004

Reliable First-Principles Alloy Thermodynamics Via Truncated Cluster Expansions, Nikolai A. Zarkevich, Duane D. Johnson

Nikolai A. Zarkevich

In alloys cluster expansions (CE) are increasingly used to combine first-principles electronicstructure calculations and Monte Carlo methods to predict thermodynamic properties. As a basis-set expansion in terms of lattice geometrical clusters and effective cluster interactions, the CE is exact if infinite, but is tractable only if truncated. Yet until now a truncation procedure was not well defined and did not guarantee a reliable truncated CE. We present an optimal truncation procedure for CE basis sets that provides reliable thermodynamics. We then exemplify its importance in Ni3V, where the CE has failed unpredictably, and now show agreement to a range of …