Phase eld modeling: Rescaling of the units

P. Murali

I.

THE MODEL

In the phase eld model, the governing equations are given by,
= 1 F dx F = ()2 + (e(x) ec )g () 2

(1)

where g () = 43 34
= M = M F F = M (e ec )g () 2

(2) (3) (4) (5)

u i = ij,j + 2 u i

ij = g () (ij 2

kk

+ 2

ij )

e=

2 kk

ij ij

II.

DISCUSSION AND NOTES

Basic material parameters that we choose to solve the above equations are, critical energy density ec , Young's modulus, Y , surface energy , density , viscosity (arbitrarily selected), elastic wave speed c =
/ which links the length scale with the time scale.

The gradient coecient is related to the by the relation = 2 /ec (see next section). The rescaled equations are as follows:
= 2 2 M ec l ec

Electronic address:

e 1 ec

2 2 l 2 e2 c

e 1 ec

(6)

muralipalla@gmail.com

2
l2 2 u i = ij,j + u i 2 ij = ij /( 0 )

(7) (8)

Notes
1 (2.5) 2 1. ec and are related by ec = 2 f assuming Poisson's ratio, = 1/4. If we assume,

for organic,

0.4472 and hence ec = O /4

2. l is chosen such that l = /[2ec ] and the normalized (= /[l2 ec ]) = 4 3. From dimensional analysis, the diusive interface correlation length can be expressed
2 by lc = /ec (Hence in eect the length scale we have chosen is about half of this

correlation length, if the grid spacing is one, we should see the gradient for two grid spacings) 4. = l/c , where c is the elastic wave speed in the specic component (either organic or mineral, which ever is chosen for normalization), 5. Again from dimensional analysis, mobility, M can be be dened as M 1/[ec ]
2c/ (c/[ec l]), which is some kind of 'ux' (volume per second) per thresholdenergy

(which drives the ux). 6. Density ( ) is assumed same for both the components = ( /c2 ). Hence the elastic wave speeds are dierent, for example c = c

, in order to keep the time step

suciently small, the normalization is better done with the sti component. 7. In equation (4): , and are expressed in the units of (pertaining to one of the components) and the same stress is used in equilibrium equation (7). In equation (5), the elastic constants need to be normalized by ec
III. GRADIENT COEFFCIENT,

Under equilibrium (see eq. 2) we have (1D equation),

d2 dg = (e ec ) 2 dx d
2

(9)

d 2 dx

= (e ec )g () + p(x)

(10)

when d/dx=0, = 0 or 1, and g () = 0 or 1, assuming g () = 1, p(x) = (e(x) ec ); when g () = 0, e(x) = ec

d 2 dx =
2

= (e ec )[g () 1]
2

d 2 dx =

dx =

d d 2 dx

(ec e)(1 g ()d 2

(11)

When load is zero, e = 0

= 2 = ec 2
2

(1 g ()d ec 4

(12) (13)

[1] Murali et. al.