Abstract
Cellular structures or tessellations are ubiquitous in nature. Metals and ceramics commonly consist of space-filling arrays of single-crystal grains separated by a network of grain boundaries, and foams (froths) are networks of gas-filled bubbles separated by liquid walls. Cellular structures also occur in biological tissue, and in magnetic, ferroelectric and complex fluid contexts. In many situations, the cell/grain/bubble walls move under the influence of their surface tension (capillarity), with a velocity proportional to their mean curvature. As a result, the cells evolve and the structure coarsens. Over 50 years ago, von Neumann derived an exact formula for the growth rate of a cell in a two-dimensional cellular structure (using the relation between wall velocity and mean curvature, the fact that three domain walls meet at 120° and basic topology). This forms the basis of modern grain growth theory. Here we present an exact and much-sought extension of this result into three (and higher) dimensions. The present results may lead to the development of predictive models for capillarity-driven microstructure evolution in a wide range of industrial and commercial processing scenarios—such as the heat treatment of metals, or even controlling the ‘head’ on a pint of beer.
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Acknowledgements
D.J.S. was supported by the US Department of Energy and the US National Science Foundation.
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This file contains Supplementary Notes with the derivation of the main result in the Article, Supplementary Equation illustrating the generalization of the von Neumann-Mullins relation to three dimensions and Supplementary Discussion of practical approaches to calculating the mean width of a domain – including exact methods for polyhedra and a few special shapes plus a numerical method for determining the mean width of arbitrary three-dimensional domains. (PDF 167 kb)
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MacPherson, R., Srolovitz, D. The von Neumann relation generalized to coarsening of three-dimensional microstructures. Nature 446, 1053–1055 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05745
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05745
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