On the theory of grain growth in systems with anisotropic boundary mobility

• Published in: Acta materialia Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 499 - 510
• Main Authors: Kazaryan, A., Patton, B.R., Dregia, S.A., Wang, Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 08-02-2002; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Anisotropic systems; Applied sciences; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Grain growth; Materials science; Metals. Metallurgy; Physics; Solid solution hardening, precipitation hardening, and dispersion hardening; aging; Solid solution, precipitation, and dispersion hardening; aging; Theory & modeling; Treatment of materials and its effects on microstructure and properties; Grain growth; Theory & modeling; Anisotropic systems; Crystal growth; Grain boundaries; Growth rate; Theoretical study; Microstructure; Heat treatments
• ISSN: 1359-6454; 1873-2453
• DOI: 10.1016/S1359-6454(01)00369-X

We analyze grain growth kinetics in systems with anisotropic grain boundary mobility. In contrast to most previous studies of grain growth dynamics, we relax self-similarity assumptions that strongly constrain the dynamics and statistics during microstructural evolution in polycrystalline materials. We derive analytical expressions for the average growth rate within each topological class of
n-sided grains as well as for the growth rate of the average grain area; we explain the results using underlying symmetries. Although anisotropic grain growth may in general be non-linear in time, we show, even in the absence of the self-similarity constraint, that the evolution kinetics obeys the von Neumann–Mullins relationship in the two limiting cases of textured and fully random microstructure with a time dependence solely determined by changes in the misorientation distribution. Our analytical results agree well with recent computer simulations using a generalized phase field approach.