A COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FOR NUCLEATION OF SOLID-SOLID PHASE-TRANSFORMATIONS

A computational methodology for nucleation of phase transformations in a class of grade 2, non-linearly elastic materials is presented. Nucl eation is treated as an energy extremum problem. The material is assum ed to be governed by a non-linear, non-local elastic constitutive rela tion represented by a Landau-Ginzburg potential. The extremum problem is solved using the element-free Galerkin (EFG) method and a perturbed Lagrangian technique. The EFG method is used because of its ability t o handle continuity of displacement gradients required in the weak for m. Applications to homogeneous nucleation in two dimensions are presen ted which illustrate the accuracy of the method and its suitability fo r problems of this type.