Detection of Capillary-Mediated Energy Fields on a Grain Boundary Groove: Solid–Liquid Interface Perturbations

• Main Authors: Martin Glicksman, Kumar Ankit
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-12-01
• Series: Metals
• Subjects: interfaces; grain boundary grooves; capillarity; pattern formation; phase field measurements
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/7/12/547

Grain boundary grooves are common features on polycrystalline solid–liquid interfaces. Their local microstructure can be closely approximated as a “variational” groove, the theoretical profile for which is analyzed here for its Gibbs–Thomson thermo-potential distribution. The distribution of thermo-potentials for a variational groove exhibits gradients tangential to the solid–liquid interface. Energy fluxes stimulated by capillary-mediated tangential gradients are divergent and thus capable of redistributing energy on real or simulated grain boundary grooves. Moreover, the importance of such capillary-mediated energy fields on interfaces is their influence on stability and pattern formation dynamics. The capillary-mediated field expected to be present on a stationary grain boundary groove is verified quantitatively using the multiphase-field approach. Simulation and post-processing measurements fully corroborate the presence and intensity distribution of interfacial cooling, proving that thermodynamically-consistent numerical models already support, without any modification, capillary perturbation fields, the existence of which is currently overlooked in formulations of sharp interface dynamic models.