Phase Separation Coupled With Damage Processes ― Analysis of Phase Field Models in Elastic Media

Christian Heinemann explores a unifying model which couples phase separation and damage processes in a system of partial differential equations. The model has technological applications to solder materials where interactions of both phenomena have been observed and cannot be neglected for a realistic description. The author derives the equations in a thermodynamically consistent framework and presents suitable weak formulations for various types of this coupled system. In the main part, he proves the existence of weak solutions and investigates degenerate limits.

Christian Heinemann earned his doctoral degree at the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jurgen Sprekels and Dr. Christiane Kraus. He is a member of the research staff at the Young Scientists' Group at the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics in Berlin.