2013/04/15 by Rainer Backofen, Katayun Barmak, K. R. Elder +2 · 64 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Curvature #Exponent #Geometry #Grain boundary #Grain growth #Grain size #Length scale #Materials science #Mathematics #Mechanics #Metallurgy #Microstructure #Phase (matter) #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Solidification and crystal growth phenomena #Statistical physics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Thermodynamics #Work (physics) #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2013.11.034
published in Acta Materialia 64, 72-77 (Elsevier BV) · 4 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2013/04/15 · openalex publication_date 2013/12/18 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · arxiv updated 2017/11/21 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Grain growth experiments on thin metallic films have shown the geometric and topological characteristics of the grain structure to be universal and independent of many experimental conditions. The universal size distribution, however, is found to differ both qualitatively and quantitatively from the standard Mullins curvature driven model of grain growth; with the experiments exhibiting an excess of small grains (termed an "ear") and an excess of very large grains (termed a "tail") compared with the model. While a plethora of extensions of the Mullins model have been proposed to explain these characteristics, none have been successful. In this work, large scale simulations of a model that resolves the atomic scale on diffusive time scales, the phase field crystal model, is used to examine the complex phenomena of grain growth. The results are in remarkable agreement with the experimental results, recovering the characteristic "ear" and "tail" features of the experimental grain size distribution. The simulations also indicate that while the geometric and topological characteristics are universal, the dynamic growth exponent is not.