Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Notation
- Part I Basic thermodynamics and kinetics of phase transformations
- Part II The atomic origins of thermodynamics and kinetics
- Part III Types of phase transformations
- Part IV Advanced topics
- 19 Low-temperature analysis of phase boundaries
- 20 Cooperative behavior near a critical temperature
- 21 Elastic energy of solid precipitates
- 22 Statistical kinetics of ordering transformations
- 23 Diffusion, dissipation, and inelastic scattering
- 24 Vibrational thermodynamics of materials at high temperatures
- Further reading
- References
- Index
20 - Cooperative behavior near a critical temperature
from Part IV - Advanced topics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Notation
- Part I Basic thermodynamics and kinetics of phase transformations
- Part II The atomic origins of thermodynamics and kinetics
- Part III Types of phase transformations
- Part IV Advanced topics
- 19 Low-temperature analysis of phase boundaries
- 20 Cooperative behavior near a critical temperature
- 21 Elastic energy of solid precipitates
- 22 Statistical kinetics of ordering transformations
- 23 Diffusion, dissipation, and inelastic scattering
- 24 Vibrational thermodynamics of materials at high temperatures
- Further reading
- References
- Index
Summary
Section 1.1 put phase transitions in materials into a broader context of phase transitions in general. Most of this book has been on how atoms arrange themselves at different T and P, and how these arrangements change abruptly through a phase transition. Atoms in solids tend to be a bit sluggish in their movements, however, and their arrangements can be slow to attain states of thermodynamic equilibrium. Diffusion and nucleation, which retard, redirect, or even arrest the paths to equilibrium, are kinetic phenomena of interest and importance. Those nonthermodynamic phenomena are essential to the full life cycle of a phase transformation, but they obscure the singularities in the free energy function or its derivatives that underlie the thermodynamics of a phase transition.
The more general field of phase transitions often places rigorous emphasis on thermodynamic equilibrium, even at temperatures that are very low, or at temperatures very near a critical temperature where atomic structures may not attain equilibrium in reasonable times. Liquid–gas transitions and magnetic transitions are often better candidates for studies of phase transitions for their own sake. Nevertheless, concepts from the broader field of phase transitions do help our understanding of phase transformations in solid materials. Much of the interest in the basic physics of phase transitions is in how a system behaves very close to the critical temperature.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Phase Transitions in Materials , pp. 468 - 482Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014