Computer simulation of strain-induced morphological transformation of coherent precipitates

The coherent elastic strain-induced morphological transformation of a binary cubic model alloy was simulated with different strain energy parameters. The microscopic diffusion equation was combined with the theory of microscopic elasticity. The results show that when the strain energy is neglected, the randomly distributed equiaxed particles are obtained with isotropic characteristic.It is coarsening that follows the Ostwald ripening mechanism: smaller particles dwindle and larger particles grow; when the elastic strain is considered, plate precipitates tend to align along the elastically soft directions <01> with anisotropic characteristic. The particles grow in the soft directions and coarsen further; particles dwindle in out of the soft directions. While the coarsening of the particles localized in the same row or column follows the rule: smaller particles shrink and larger ones grow.