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Updated: Aug 21, 2026
A Virtual Simulation Experiment of Mechanics: Material Deformation and Failure Based on Scanning Electron Microscopy
Published on: January 20, 2023
Microscale simulation of martensitic microstructure evolution
Valery I Levitas1, Alexander V Idesman, Dean L Preston
1Center for Mechanochemistry and Synthesis of New Materials, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409-1021, USA.
Abstract:
A new model for the evolution of multivariant martensitic microstructure in single crystals and polycrystals is developed. In contrast with Landau-Ginzburg models, which are limited in practice to nanoscale specimens, this new scale-free model is valid for length scales greater than 100 nm and without an upper bound. It is based on a thermodynamic potential in the volume fractions of the martensitic variants that exhibits an instability resulting in microstructure formation. Simulated microstructures in elastic single crystals and polycrystals under uniaxial loading are in qualitative agreement with those observed experimentally.
