Effect of heat release on the phase boundary motion: a self-consistent treatment

Abstract

Stationary regimes of the motion of phase boundaries accompanied by the heat release have been investigated. The heat produced can accelerate the phase boundary motion which in many two-phase systems is thermally activated (an example of practical importance being the grain boundary motion in the process of recrystallisation). This in turn increases the heat production rate. A system involved in this avalanche-like process can be stabilised by the heat removal via heat conductivity and heat exchange with the thermal bath establishing a stationary regime of the phase boundary motion. Both the temperature distribution around a stationarily moving phase boundary and its velocity have been analysed self-consistently. The conditions for the existence of one or two stationary regimes of the phase boundary motion have been obtained and the possibility of transitions between the two regimes accompanied by a jump-like change of the phase boundary velocity has been discussed.