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. Nucleation is treated as an energy extremum problem. The material is assumed to be governed by a non-linear, non-local elastic constitutive relation 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 to handle continuity of displacement gradients required in the weak form. Applications to homogeneous nucleation in two dimensions are presented which illustrate the accuracy of the method and its suitability for problems of this type.