Ostwald ripening in non-spherical morphologies

A statistical theory of Ostwald ripening has been extended to describe the diffusion-limited coarsening of non-spherical convex interfaces. Distributional analysis is performed on a series of interfacial patches, where the patches and adjacent isopotential surfaces have a common fixed ratio of principal curvatures. Results of this analysis are expressed in terms of a dimensionless shape factor that ranges from zero for spherical interfaces to unity for cylindrical surfaces. Coarsening rate constants are calculated as a function of both the precipitate volume fraction and this geometric shape factor. Application of these results to ripening of ellipsoidal precipitates and other morphologies are discussed.