Effect of bulk deformation and surface tension on the growth of a coherent inclusion

The object of this paper is the study of the moving boundary problem modeling the growth of a spherical solid inclusion in an infinite solid matrix. The displacement in bulk is assumed infinitesimal, while the phases are modeled as isotropic elastic bodies, and the interface structure is described by a constant surface tension. Existence of solutions is proved, and their asymptotic behavior in time is studied, with particular attention to the competition between surface tension and bulk deformation.