Topological Stability of 2-D Vanishing Grains

1992 ◽  
Vol 278 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. E. Fradkov ◽  
M. E. Glicksman ◽  
J. Nordberg ◽  
M. Palmer ◽  
K. Rajan

AbstractGrain growth in polycrystals occurs by decreasing the total number of grains as a result of the disappearance of small ones. That is why the both the kinetic and topological details of shrinking of small grains are important.In 2-D, “uniform boundary model” assumptions imply the von Neumann-Mullins law, and all grains having less than 6 neighbors tend to shrink. The mean topological class ef vanishing grains was found experimentally to be about 4.3. This result suggests that most vanishing grains are either 4- or 5-sided, not transforming to 3-sided ones.Shrinking of 4- and 5-sided 2-D grains was studied experimentally on transparent, pure SCN, (succinonitrile) polycrystalline films and by direct computer simulation of grain boundary capillary motion together with triple junctions. It was found that the grains which are much smaller than their neighbors are topologically stable.

2004 ◽  
Vol 467-470 ◽  
pp. 777-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Mattissen ◽  
D. Kirch ◽  
Dmitri A. Molodov ◽  
Lasar S. Shvindlerman ◽  
Günter Gottstein

The motion and geometry of connected grain boundary systems with triple junctions in aluminium -10 ppm magnesium was investigated in-situ with a special designed SEM heating stage. The results show that triple junctions can have a marked influence on grain boundary motion. The grain area change with annealing time was from a hot stage in the SEM. An analysis of the experimental data reveals that there is no unique relationship between growth rate and the number n of grain sides (Von Neumann-Mullins relation). This is attributed to the effect of triple junction drag on grain growth.


1993 ◽  
Vol 317 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.J. Frost ◽  
Y. Hayashi ◽  
C.V. Thompson ◽  
D.T. Walton

ABSTRACTIn simulations of grain growth in thin films we have considered the effect of variations in grain boundary energy. Boundary energy depends on both the misorientation between the two neighboring grains, and the angles which the boundary plane makes with the crystallographic axes of the two crystals. Variations in grain boundary energy mean that dihedral angles at triple junctions deviate from 120°. The proportionality between boundary velocities and local curvatures, and the critical curvature for boundary pinning due to surface grooving also both depend on boundary energy. One effect of variable boundary energies is that grains no longer gain or lose area at rates determined solely by their topology or number of sides. (They no longer obey the Von Neumann/Mullins law). Another effect is that as the grain structures evolve, the fraction of high-energy boundaries decreases. Also, the stagnant structures have broader grain size distributions.


2004 ◽  
Vol 467-470 ◽  
pp. 935-940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Piazolo ◽  
Vera G. Sursaeva ◽  
David J. Prior

First results from grain growth experiments in a columnar structured Al foil show several interesting features: (a) the grain size distribution remains heterogeneous even after up to 300 min. annealing and (b) the Von Neumann-Mullins relation is not always satisfied. To clarify the underlying reasons for these features, in-situ heating experiments within a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) were combined with detailed Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) analysis. These show that the movement of boundaries can be strongly heterogeneous. For example, the complete replacement of one grain by a neighbouring grain without significant change of the surrounding grain boundary topology is frequently seen. Experiments show that grain boundary energy and/or mobility are anisotropic both with respect to misorientation and orientation of grain boundary plane. Low energy and/or mobility boundaries are commonly low angle boundaries, twin boundaries and boundaries that form traces to a low index plane of at least one of the adjacent grains. As a consequence the Von Neumann-Mullins relation is not always satisfied.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 173-195
Author(s):  
Günter Gottstein ◽  
Lazar S. Shvindlerman

Grain boundary triple junctions are the structural elements of a polycrystal. Recently it was recognized that they can strongly impact the microstructural evolution, and therefore there engender new opportunities to control and to design the grain microstructure of fine-grained and nanocrystalline materials due to their effect on recovery, recrystallization and grain growth. The measurement of triple junction energy and mobility is thus of great importance. The line energy of a triple junction constructs an additional driving force of grain growth. Taking the triple line energy into account, a modified form of the Zener force and the Gibbs-Thomson relation can be derived to reveal the influence of the triple line energy on second phase particles and the change of the equilibrium concentration of vacancies in the vicinity of voids at a grain boundary. The impact of triple junctions on the sintering of nanopowders is discussed. The role of “grain boundary - free surface” triple lines in the adhesive contact formation between spherical nanoparticles is considered. It is shown that there is a critical value of the triple line energy above which the nanoparticles do not stick together. Based on this result, a new nanoparticle agglomeration mechanism is proposed, which accounts for the formation of large agglomerates of crystallographically aligned nanoparticles during the nanopowder processing.


1994 ◽  
Vol 338 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.J. Frost ◽  
Y. Hayashi ◽  
C.V. Thompson ◽  
D.T. Walton

ABSTRACTGrain growth in thin-film strips is important to interconnect reliability because grain boundary structures strongly effect the rate and mechanism of electromigration-induced failure. Previous simulations of this process have indicated that the transformation to the fully bamboo structure proceeds at a rate which decreases exponentially with time, and which is inversely proportional to the square of the strip width. We have also reported that grain boundary pinning due to surface grooving implies that there exists a maximum strip width to thickness ratio beyond which the transformation to the bamboo structure does not proceed to completion. In this work we have extended our simulation of grain growth in thin films and thin film strips to consider the effects of variations in grain boundary energy. Boundary energy is taken to depend on the misorientation between the two neighboring grain and the resulting variations in grain boundary energy mean that dihedral angles at triple junctions deviate from 120°. The proportionality between boundary velocities and local curvatures, and the critical curvature for boundary pinning due to surface grooving also both depend on boundary energy. In the case of thin-film strips, the effect of boundary energy variability is to impede the transformation to the bamboo structure, and reduce the width above which the complete bamboo structure is never reached. Those boundaries which do remain upon stagnation tend to be of low energy (low misorientation angle) and are therefore probably of low diffusivity, so that their impact on reliability is probably reduced.


Metals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
Ernst Gamsjäger ◽  
Boris Gschöpf ◽  
Jiří Svoboda

Grain boundary networks composed of equal microstructural elements were investigated in a recent paper. In this work a more complicated artificial grain topology consisting of one four-sided, two six-sided and one eight-sided grain is designed to further investigate the influence of grain boundary and triple junction mobilities on the kinetics of the system in more detail. Depending on the value of the equal mobility of all triple junctions, the initially square-shaped four-sided grain changes its shape to become more or less rectangular. This indicates that the grain morphology is influenced by the value of the mobility of the triple junctions. It is also demonstrated that a grain arrangement with low mobility triple junctions controlling the kinetics of grain growth enhances growth of the large eight-sided grains. In addition, grain growth is investigated for different values of mobilities of triple junctions and grain boundaries. A strong elongation of several grains is predicted by the modeling results for reduced mobilities of the microstructural grain boundary elements. The two-dimensional modeling results are compared to micrographs of a heat-treated titanium niobium microalloyed steel. This feature, namely the evolution of elongated grains, is observed in the micrograph due to the pinning effect of (Ti, Nb)C precipitates at elevated soaking temperatures of around 1100 °C. Furthermore, the experiments show that a broader distribution of the grain sizes occur at 1100 °C compared to soaking temperatures, where pinning due to precipitates plays a less prominent role. A widening of the distribution of the grain sizes for small triple junction mobilities is also predicted by the unit cell model.


2004 ◽  
Vol 467-470 ◽  
pp. 715-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moneesh Upmanyu ◽  
Zachary T. Trautt ◽  
Branden B. Kappes

Anisotropy in grain boundary “thermo-kinetics” is central to our understanding of microstructural evolution during grain growth and recrystallization. This paper focusses on role of atomic-scale computer simulation techniques, in particular molecular dynamics (MD), in extracting fundamental grain boundary properties and elucidating the atomic-scale mechanisms that determine these properties. A brief overview of recent strides made in extraction of grain boundary mobility and energy is presented, with emphasis on plastic strain induced boundary motion (p-SIBM) during recrystallization and curvature driven boundary motion (CDBM) during grain growth. Simulations aimed at misorientation dependence of the grain boundary properties during p-SIBM and CDBM show that boundary mobility and energy exhibit extrema at high symmetry misorientations and boundary mobility is comparatively more anisotropic during CDBM. This suggests that boundary mobility is dependent on the driving force. Qualitative observations of the atomic-scale mechanisms in play during boundary motion corroborate the simulation data. p-SIBM is dominated by motion of dislocation-interaction induced stepped structure of the grain boundaries, while correlated shuffling of group of atoms preceded by rearrangement of grain boundary free volume due to single atomic-hops across the grain boundary is frequently observed during CDBM. Comparison of the simulation results with high-purity experimental data extracted in Al indicates that while there is excellent agreement in misorientation dependent anisotropic properties, there are significant differences in values of boundary mobility and migration activation enthalpy. This strongly suggests that minute concentration of impurities retard grain boundary kinetics via impurity drag. Finally, the paper briefly discusses current and future challenges facing the computer simulation community in studying grain boundary systems in real materials where extrinsic effects (vacancy, impurity, segregation and particle effects) significantly alter the microscopic structure-mechanism relations and play a decisive role in determining the boundary properties.


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