EVOLUTION OF THE CLUSTER SIZE-DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION FOR OSTWALD RIPENING IN VISCOELASTIC MEDIA

In systems like glass-forming melts in the vicinity of the vitrification temperature or polymers, the elastic strains which evolve as a result of formation and growth of an ensemble of clusters may result in a partial or total inhibition of cluster growth and Ostwald ripening already in the absence of elastic interactions between the clusters. Based on the Lifshitz-Slyozov theory the evolution of thc cluster size distribution and related quantitites like the critical (Gibbs-Thomson) cluster size, average cluster size and number of clusters are estimated. It is shown that for the particular model of cluster growth in a viscoelastic body considered the Lifshitz-Slyozov asymptotic distribution goes over continuously into a time-independent deltafunction-like distribution, corresponding to a stable monodisperse distribution of clusters in the system.