26,514 research outputs found
Capillary instability in nanowire geometries
The vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism has been applied extensively as a
framework for growing single-crystal semiconductor nanowires for applications
spanning optoelectronic, sensor and energy-related technologies. Recent
experiments have demonstrated that subtle changes in VLS growth conditions
produce a diversity of nanowire morphologies, and result in intricate kinked
structures that may yield novel properties. These observations have motivated
modeling studies that have linked kinking phenomena to processes at the triple
line between vapor, liquid and solid phases that cause spontaneous "tilting" of
the growth direction. Here we present atomistic simulations and theoretical
analyses that reveal a tilting instability that is intrinsic to nanowire
geometries, even in the absence of pronounced anisotropies in solid-liquid
interface properties. The analysis produces a very simple conclusion: the
transition between axisymmetric and tilted triple lines is shown to occur when
the triple line geometry satisfies Young's force-balance condition. The
intrinsic nature of the instability may have broad implications for the design
of experimental strategies for controlled growth of crystalline nanowires with
complex geometries.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Numerical simulation of single droplet dynamics in three-phase flows using ISPH
In this study, a new surface tension formulation for modeling incompressible, immiscible three-phase fluid flows in the context of incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (ISPH) in two dimensions has been proposed. A continuum surface force model is employed to transform local surface tension force to a volumetric force while physical surface tension coefficients are expressed as the sum of phase specific surface tension coefficients, facilitating the implementation of the proposed method at triple junctions where all three phases are present. Smoothed color functions at fluid interfaces along with artificial particle displacement throughout the computational domain are combined to increase accuracy and robustness of the model. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, several numerical simulations have been carried out and results are compared to analytical data available in literature. Results obtained by simulations are compatible with analytical data, demonstrating that the ISPH scheme proposed here is capable of handling three-phase flows accurately
The influence of short range forces on melting along grain boundaries
We investigate a model which couples diffusional melting and nanoscale
structural forces via a combined nano-mesoscale description. Specifically, we
obtain analytic and numerical solutions for melting processes at grain
boundaries influenced by structural disjoining forces in the experimentally
relevant regime of small deviations from the melting temperature. Though
spatially limited to the close vicinity of the tip of the propagating melt
finger, the influence of the disjoining forces is remarkable and leads to a
strong modification of the penetration velocity. The problem is represented in
terms of a sharp interface model to capture the wide range of relevant length
scales, predicting the growth velocity and the length scale describing the
pattern, depending on temperature, grain boundary energy, strength and length
scale of the exponential decay of the disjoining potential. Close to
equilibrium the short-range effects near the triple junctions can be expressed
through a contact angle renormalisation in a mesoscale formulation. For higher
driving forces strong deviations are found, leading to a significantly higher
melting velocity than predicted from a purely mesoscopic description.Comment: 10 page
Li-diffusion accelerates grain growth in intercalation electrodes: a phase-field study
Grain boundary migration is driven by the boundary's curvature and external
loads such as temperature and stress. In intercalation electrodes an additional
driving force results from Li-diffusion. That is, Li-intercalation induces
volume expansion of the host-electrode, which is stored as elastic energy in
the system. This stored energy is hypothesized as an additional driving force
for grain boundaries and edge dislocations. Here, we apply the 2D
Cahn-Hilliardphase-field-crystal (CH-PFC) model to investigate the coupled
interactions between highly mobile Li-ions and host-electrode lattice
structure, during an electrochemical cycle. We use a polycrystalline
FePO/ LiFePO electrode particle as a model system. We compute grain
growth in the FePO electrode in two parallel studies: In the first study,
we electrochemically cycle the electrode and calculate Li-diffusion assisted
grain growth. In the second study, we do not cycle the electrode and calculate
the curvature-driven grain growth. External loads, such as temperature and
stress, did not differ across studies. We find the mean grain-size increases by
in the electrochemically cycled electrode particle. By contrast, in
the absence of electrochemical cycling, we find the mean grain-size increases
by in the electrode particle. These CH-PFC computations suggest that
Li-intercalation accelerates grain-boundary migration in the host-electrode
particle. The CH-PFC simulations provide atomistic insights on
diffusion-induced grain-boundary migration, edge dislocation movement and
triple-junction drag-effect in the host-electrode microstructure.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
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