Phase field modelling of grain growth in polycrystalline material

Abstract

Based on the two-parameter phase field model of polycrystalline, the grain growth in polycrystalline material during isothermal holding is simulated by using the adaptive finite element method. The calculated results demonstrates that the cusp grain boundaries are inclined to planar and some small grains coarsen into larger ones through grain boundary migration due to the curvature effect. When the grain boundary misorientations are small enough and meet certain energy and geometric conditions, two grains can rotate to reduce external energy of grain boundaries and coarsen into a single grain. All the modelling results are in good agreement with some experimental observations, and the phase-field model can be successfully employed to simulate polycrystalline grain growth.