2008/02/06 by Masao Iwamatsu · 25 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Aluminum Alloy Microstructure Properties #Chemistry #Classical nucleation theory #Exponent #Metallic Glasses and Amorphous Alloys #Nucleation #Phase (matter) #Physics #Solidification and crystal growth phenomena #Statistical physics #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.2883652
published in The Journal of Chemical Physics 128(8), 084504 (American Institute of Physics) · 9 pages, 8 figures, Journal of Chemical Physics to be published
arxiv created 2008/02/06 · openalex publication_date 2008/02/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The homogeneous nucleation and growth in a simplest two-dimensional phase field model is numerically studied using the cell dynamics method. The whole process from nucleation to growth is simulated and is shown to follow closely the Kolmogorov-Johnson-Mehl-Avrami (KJMA) scenario of phase transformation. Specifically the time evolution of the volume fraction of new stable phase is found to follow closely the KJMA formula. By fitting the KJMA formula directly to the simulation data, not only the Avrami exponent but the magnitude of nucleation rate and, in particular, of incubation time are quantitatively studied. The modified Avrami plot is also used to verify the derived KJMA parameters. It is found that the Avrami exponent is close to the ideal theoretical value m=3. The temperature dependence of nucleation rate follows the activation-type behavior expected from the classical nucleation theory. On the other hand, the temperature dependence of incubation time does not follow the exponential activation-type behavior. Rather the incubation time is inversely proportional to the temperature predicted from the theory of Shneidman and Weinberg [J. Non-Cryst. Solids 160, 89 (1993)]. A need to restrict thermal noise in simulation to deduce correct Avrami exponent is also discussed.