The validity of classical nucleation theory and its application to dislocation nucleation
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Nucleation has been the subject of intense research because it plays an important role in the dynamics of most first-order phase transitions. The standard theory to describe the nucleation phenomena is the classical nucleation theory (CNT) because it correctly captures the qualitative features of the nucleation process. However potential problems with CNT have been suggested by previous studies. We systematically test the individual components of CNT by computer simulations of the Ising model and find that it accurately predicts the nucleation rate if the correct droplet free energy computed by umbrella sampling is provided as input. This validates the fundamental assumption of CNT that the system can be coarse grained into a one dimensional Markov chain with the largest droplet size as the reaction coordinate. Employing similar simulation techniques, we study the dislocation nucleation which is essential to our understanding of plastic deformation, ductility, and mechanical strength of crystalline materials. We show that dislocation nucleation rates can be accurately predicted over a wide range of conditions using CNT with the activation free energy determined by umbrella sampling. Our data reveal very large activation entropies, which contribute a multiplicative factor of many orders of magnitude to the nucleation rate. The activation entropy at constant strain is caused by thermal expansion, with negligible contribution from the vibrational entropy. The activation entropy at constant stress is significantly larger than that at constant strain, as a result of thermal softening. The large activation entropies are caused by anharmonic effects, showing the limitations of the harmonic approximation widely used for rate estimation in solids. Similar behaviors are expected to occur in other nucleation processes in solids.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Ryu, Seunghwa |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Physics |
| Primary advisor | Cai, Wei |
| Primary advisor | Osheroff, Douglas D |
| Thesis advisor | Cai, Wei |
| Thesis advisor | Osheroff, Douglas D |
| Thesis advisor | McIntyre, Paul Cameron |
| Thesis advisor | Nix, William D |
| Advisor | McIntyre, Paul Cameron |
| Advisor | Nix, William D |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Seunghwa Ryu. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Physics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2011. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2011 by Seunghwa Ryu
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
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