The structure of reactive grain-boundaries under stress containing confined fluids

Koehn, D. , Malthe-Sørenssen, A. and Passchier, C. (2006) The structure of reactive grain-boundaries under stress containing confined fluids. Chemical Geology, 230(3-4), pp. 207-219. (doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2006.02.026)

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Publisher's URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2006.02.026

Abstract

We present numerical experiments on structure development in grain-boundaries during dissolution–precipitation creep. Two solids that are represented by an elastic spring configuration are pressed together with a compressible fluid in the grain-boundary. The solid can dissolve or precipitate depending on elastic and surface energy as well as fluid pressure and concentration of dissolved material in the fluid. We perform a number of numerical experiments with different starting configurations that represent a large-scale island-channel interface with solid–solid contacts across the islands, a rough grain-boundary interface with a fluid along the whole interface and a smooth thin-film interface. The simulations suggest that the solid–solid islands become unstable by necking and anti-cracking so that the island-channel interface will develop into a grain-boundary interface. The rough interface of the grain-boundary will coarsen with time so that in the extreme case a smooth thin-film interface will emerge. However the thin-film interface is also not necessarily stable but may develop into a rough grain-boundary where the roughness is initiated by heterogeneous dissolution of the solid. Our numerical experiments suggest that interface structures during dissolution–precipitation creep are transient and that the dominance of one interface structure depends on material properties, the displacement rate, purity of the reacting solid and the scale of observation.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Koehn, Dr Daniel
Authors: Koehn, D., Malthe-Sørenssen, A., and Passchier, C.
Subjects:Q Science > QE Geology
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
Journal Name:Chemical Geology
ISSN:0009-2541
Published Online:19 April 2006

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