Grain growth in materials with mobile second-phase particles

Abstract

Abstract The grain growth process controlled by particles able to move together with grain boundaries is investigated by means of numerical simulation. The particles either located on grain boundaries or randomly distributed over the material volume are shown to retard grain growth. In the first case, the growth kinetics is described by a power law Dn – D0 n = kt with the exponent n = 3, at particle volume fractions as low as 0.001. In the case of polycrystals with randomly distributed mobile particles the growth exponent n is larger than 3 and increases with an increase in the particle size or volume fraction.