The effect of elastic stress and relaxation on crystal nucleation in lithium disilicate glass

In the framework of a general theoretical approach recently developed, the effect of elastic stresses on the rate of nucleation of crystallites of critical sizes in the process of crystallization of lithium disilicate glasses is studied. Hereby both the evolution of elastic stresses – due to changes in the specific volume of the crystallizing system (i.e., differences in the densities of the melt and the crystal) – and their relaxation – connected with viscous flow – are taken into consideration. If the classical theory of nucleation is employed for the determination of the nucleation rates (modified by taking into account elastic stresses), elastic stresses may lead, for the system under consideration, to a decrease of the nucleation rate by up to two orders of magnitude. As shown, the theory allows an at least qualitatively correct incorporation of the effect of elastic stresses and stress relaxation into the description of nucleation phenomena in glass-forming melts.