Now in its fifteenth year, the Thomas Young Centre is a London-based interdisciplinary research network which brings together a range of groups from across the capital whose research involves materials and molecular modelling and theoretical chemistry.

 

15:00 - 16:00 BST, Thursday 3rd June 2021

Allotropic phase transformations may be driven by the application of stress - this is especially well-known for pressure driven transformations.  Recent advances in strengthening materials allow for the application of very large shear stresses as well - opening up vast new regions of stress space.  The presence of shear implies that phase transformations depend upon the full stress tensor and crystal/grain orientation.  We propose a crystal thermodynamics framework for describing phase transormations in polycrystalline solids and apply it through non-linear elasticity and density functional theory calculations.  In particular, we consider bcc➜hcp transformations in iron, fcc➜hcp transformations in nickel, and hcp➜fcc transformations in titanium. The results are quantitatively consistent with a range of experimental observations in these disparate systems.

 

21th to 25th June 2021