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Phase‐Field Modeling of Grain Boundary Premelting
Author(s) -
Takei Yasuko
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: solid earth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.983
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 2169-9356
pISSN - 2169-9313
DOI - 10.1029/2019jb017632
Subject(s) - premelting , eutectic system , grain boundary , materials science , thermodynamics , metallurgy , composite material , melting point , physics , alloy , microstructure
Abstract The enhancement of grain boundary disorder near the melting temperature, called premelting, has been known for ice, but not for rock. Recently, possible occurrence of premelting in the upper mantle has become a concern because it causes a solid‐state weakening of rock. This is a possible explanation of the seismic low‐velocity zones and weak asthenosphere without invoking melt. In this paper, I introduce an existing thermodynamic model of the grain boundary and discuss the physical mechanism of premelting in a binary eutectic system, which is the simplest case of such a multicomponent system. The model is based on a phase‐field approach and captures both premelting and partial melting. It predicts that even with a very small amount of the secondary component, the temperature at which premelting occurs drastically decreases from just below the melting temperature of the primary component to just below the eutectic temperature. It also predicts that equilibrium dihedral angle of melt can be a partial proxy for the grain boundary disorder. The model explains well the experimentally measured mechanical properties of a binary eutectic system of organic polycrystals (borneol +0.3–1.7% diphenylamine): With a small amount of diphenylamine, diffusivity and shear stress relaxation at the borneol‐borneol grain boundary are significantly enhanced just below the eutectic temperature, which is much lower than the melting temperature of borneol.