The microstructure evolution and interface characteristics of a directionally solidified Ti-43Al-3Si (at.%) alloy in an alumina (Al2O3) crucible with new Y2O3 skull-aided technology were investigated. The Y2O3-skull that is in contact with the TiAl-melt is relatively stable, which results in a more controlled reaction between the skull and the melt than in the case of an Al2O3 crucible is used....

We present a simple example of toughening mechanism in the homogenization of composites with soft inclusions, produced by crack deflection at microscopic level. We show that the mechanism is connected to the irreversibility of the crack process. Because of that it cannot be detected through the standard homogenization tool of the Γ-convergence.

We prove the Γ-convergence of the one-dimensional Allen-Cahn action functional in the sharp-interface limit. In previous work, a good lower bound was developed under the assumption of single multiplicity, but the bound deteriorated in the case of higher multiplicity interfaces. We develop an improved bound by working directly with the limiting energy measures.