Zachary Croft

I work in the field of computational materials science in Professor Katsuyo Thornton’s research group. My research involves simulations of microstructural evolution using the phase-field method. I am interested in understanding the dynamics of polycrystalline grain growth resulting from stored strain-energy generated during cyclic heat treatments (CHT). It has been shown experimentally that CHT can be used to produce large single crystals of shape memory alloys, though the exact mechanism is not known due to the current limitations of experimental observation. By creating phase-field models parameterized with experimental input from our collaborators, we hope to gain a better understanding of the physics and conditions that lead to abnormal grain growth in shape memory alloys, which is critical for designing efficient and low-cost methods of single crystal production.

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