The phase field micro-elasticity approach to mesoscale modelling of mobile crystal defects was reviewed. Various defects were modelled in the same theoretical framework, including dislocations, cracks and free surfaces in single crystals, polycrystals and hetero-epitaxial films. The model was also applicable to diffusional and displacive phase transformations. The phase field micro-elasticity model was based on Ginzburg-Landau phase transition theory with modification by incorporating the transformation micromechanics. It numerically solves the exact elasticity equation that governs the long-range elastic interactions of structural defects which determine the mechanical properties of materials. The mesoscale microstructures of arbitrary geometrical complexity were described by a set of structure density fields or phase fields, without explicitly tracking the moving boundaries. The topological changes during nucleation, annihilation, coalescence of defects and formation of various metastable configurations were automatically taken into consideration. No ad hoc assumptions on possible microstructure morphologies during evolution were required. Various nano- and mesoscale processes were simulated. The models enable one to investigate the structure-property relationships of complex material systems which were determined by the interplays between multiple physical processes.

Mesoscale Modelling of Mobile Crystal Defects - Dislocations, Cracks and Surface Roughening - Phase Field Micro-Elasticity Approach. Y.U.Wang, Y.M.Jin, A.G.Khachaturyan: Philosophical Magazine, 2005, 85[2-3], 261-77