Effects of elastic interaction energy and interface energy on morphology and distribution of precipitates: Two-dimensional analysis based on anisotropic elasticity

Abstract

Elastic interaction energy between two super-circular inclusions with purely dilatational misfit strains is evaluated. For the calculation, a two dimensional model is used together with linear elasticity for the cubic anisotropy of copper. When two inclusions lie parallel to 〈100〉 of the copper crystal, attractive interaction is observed between the inclusions. The maximum of the attractive interaction is realized when the two inclusions exist close to each other. As the inclusion shape becomes circular to square-like, the maximum interaction energy decreases and the distance between the two inclusions to give the maximum increases. Furthermore, the two inclusions are found to be most stable when they have the same size. In addition to the elastic interaction energy, interface energy of the matrix/inclusion interface is also considered. The results show that the two inclusions tend to become the same size even for a situation when the interface energy is much more dominant compared with the elastic interaction energy. © 2007 The Japan Institute of Metals.