The effect of void or precipitate growth on their growth rate

The effect of the surface motion of a void or precipitate upon its subsequent growth rate is investigated. It is emphasized that when these sinks are present as members of a random array of like and/or dissimilar sink types, the clasical analysis of Zener and Frank has very limited applicability. An alternative approach, named Adiabatic Growth theory, is developed. This applies where the earlier analysis fails. It gives a result for the growth rate in excellent agreement with commonly used steady state growth model. Moreover, the growth velocity it predicts joins smoothly onto the Zener-Frank form as the sink density tends to zero, despite the fact that its method of deviation fails in this limit. It is suggested that Adiabatic Growth theory should be used over most of the experimentally accessible range of void swelling. In this context, some qualitative remarks are presented on the related problem of surface motion-dependent void sink strength calculations. (orig.)