Investigation of Phase Transformation in Thin Film Using Finite Element Method

Cahn-Hilliard type of phase field model coupled with elasticity is used to derive governing equations for the stress-mediated diffusion and phase transformation in thin films. To solve the resulting equations, a finite element (FE) model is presented. The partial differential equations governing diffusion and mechanical equilibrium are of different orders; Mixed-order finite elements, with C0 interpolation functions for displacement, and C1 interpolation functions for concentration are implemented. To validate this new numerical solver for such coupled problems, we test our implementation on thin film diffusion couples.