Role of inclination dependence of grain boundary energy on the microstructure evolution during grain growth

Abstract The role of inclination dependence of grain boundary energy on the microstructure evolution and the orientation distribution of grain boundary planes during grain growth in polycrystalline materials is investigated by three-dimensional phase-field simulations. The anisotropic grain boundary energy model uses the description of the faceted surface structure of the individual crystals and constructs an anisotropic energy of solid-solid interface. The energy minimization occurs by the faceting of the grain boundary due to inclination dependence of the grain boundary energy. The simulation results for a single grain show the development of equilibrium shapes (faceted grain morphologies) with different families of facets which agrees well with the theoretical predictions. The results of grain growth simulations with isotropic and anisotropic grain boundary energy for cubic symmetry show that inclination dependence of grain boundary energy has a significant influence on the grain boundary migration, grain growth kinetics and the grain boundary plane distribution. It has been shown that the model essentially reproduces the experimental studies reported for NaCl and MgO polycrystalline systems where the anisotropic distribution of grain boundary planes has a peak for the low-index {100} type boundaries.