The elastic inclusion problem in the (amplitude) phase field crystal model

Abstract

In many processes for crystalline materials such as precipitation, heteroepitaxy, alloying, and phase transformation, lattice expansion or compression of embedded domains occurs. This can significantly alter the mechanical response of the material. Typically, these phenomena are studied macroscopically, thus neglecting the underlying microscopic structure. Here we present the prototypical case of an elastic inclusion described by a mesoscale model, namely a coarse-grained phase-field crystal model. A spatially-dependent parameter is introduced into the free energy functional to control the local spacing of the lattice structure, effectively prescribing an eigenstrain. The stress field obtained for an elastic inclusion in a 2D triangular lattice is shown to match well with the analytic solution of the Eshelby inclusion problem.