A semi-analytical method to estimate interface elastic properties

In this paper, we propose a semi-analytical method to evaluate a lower bound for the elastic properties of bimaterial interfaces such as grain boundaries for example. In this method, interfacial elastic properties are estimated analytically in terms of the inter-atomic potentials of the material. To evaluate the lower bound of these analytical expressions, one only needs to know the relaxed configuration of the atomic assembly near the interface of interest. In comparison with other existing methods, the semi-analytical method developed here significantly reduces the amount of computation. More importantly, because of the analytical nature of the method, it provides a much better tool to study and have a fundamental understanding of the elastic behavior of bimaterial interfaces.