Thermodynamic model formulations for inhomogeneous solids with application to non-isothermal phase field modelling

The purpose of the current work is the comparison of thermodynamic model formulations for chemically and structurally inhomogeneous solids at finite deformation based on “standard” non-equilibrium thermodynamics [SNET: e. g. S. de Groot and P. Mazur, Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics, North Holland, 1962] and the general equation for non-equilibrium reversible–irreversible coupling (GENERIC) [H. C. Öttinger, Beyond Equilibrium Thermodynamics, Wiley Interscience, 2005]. In the process, non-isothermal generalizations of standard isothermal conservative [e. g. J. W. Cahn and J. E. Hilliard, Free energy of a non-uniform system. I. Interfacial energy. J. Chem. Phys. 28 (1958), 258–267] and non-conservative [e. g. S. M. Allen and J. W. Cahn, A macroscopic theory for antiphase boundary motion and its application to antiphase domain coarsening. Acta Metall. 27 (1979), 1085–1095; A. G. Khachaturyan, Theory of Structural Transformations in Solids, Wiley, New York, 1983] diffuse interface or “phase-field” models [e. g. P. C. Hohenberg and B. I. Halperin, Theory of dynamic critical phenomena, Rev. Modern Phys. 49 (1977), 435–479; N. Provatas and K. Elder, Phase Field Methods in Material Science and Engineering, Wiley-VCH, 2010.] for solids are obtained. The current treatment is consistent with, and includes, previous works [e. g. O. Penrose and P. C. Fife, Thermodynamically consistent models of phase-field type for the kinetics of phase transitions, Phys. D 43 (1990), 44–62; O. Penrose and P. C. Fife, On the relation between the standard phase-field model and a “thermodynamically consistent” phase-field model. Phys. D 69 (1993), 107–113] on non-isothermal systems as a special case. In the context of no-flux boundary conditions, the SNET- and GENERIC-based approaches are shown to be completely consistent with each other and result in equivalent temperature evolution relations.