A minimal integer automaton behind crystal plasticity

Power law fluctuations and scale free spatial patterns are known to characterize steady state plastic flow in crystalline materials. In this Letter we study the emergence of correlations in a simple Frenkel-Kontorova (FK) type model of 2D plasticity which is largely free of arbitrariness, amenable to analytical study and is capable of generating critical exponents matching experiments. Our main observation concerns the possibility to reduce continuum plasticity to an integer valued automaton revealing inherent discreteness of the plastic flow.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

The role of phase compatibility in martensite

Shape memory alloys inherit their macroscopic properties from their mesoscale microstructure originated from the martensitic phase transformation. In a cubic to orthorhombic transition, a single variant of marten- site can have a compatible (exact) interface with the austenite for some special lattice parameters in contrast to conventional austenite/twinned martensite interface with a transition layer. Experimentally, the phase compat- ibility results in a dramatic drop in thermal hysteresis and gives rise to very stable functional properties over cycling. Here, we investigate the microstructures observed in Ti50Ni50-xPdx alloys that undergo a cubic to orthorhombic martensitic transformation using a three dimensional phase field approach. We will show that the simulation results are in very good agreement with transmission electron microscopy observations. However, the understanding of the drop in thermal hysteresis requires the coupling of phase transformation with plastic activity. We will discuss this point within the framework of thermoelasticity, which is a generic feature of the martensitic transformation.Comment: Accepted for publication in in Journal of Applied Physic

Fluorescence study on Al2O3-polystyrene latex composite film formation

This work reports a steady state fluorescence (SSF) technique for studying film formation from mixture of Al2O3 and polystyrene (PS) latex particles. The composite films were prepared from dispersion of pyrene (P)labeled PS particles in Al2O3 solution at room temperature and annealed at elevated temperatures in 10-min time interval above glass transition (T-g) temperature of polystyrene. Nine different composites film were studied in various latex contents. Fluorescence intensities (I-P) from P were measured after each annealing step to monitor the stages of film formation. No variations in I-p were detected for the films prepared with higher than 33 wt% Al2O3 content. However films prepared below 33 wt% Al2O3 content show considerable increase in I-P above the certain onset temperature called minimum film forming temperature, To. Healing temperatures T., were determined from the maxima of I-P. Void closure and interdiffusion stages were modeled and related activation energies were determined and found to be 20 and 97 kJ.mol(-1), respectively.Publisher's Versio