3D Monte Carlo simulation of texture evolution and grain growth during annealing

An improved Monte Carlo technique is developed and applied to simulate the grain growth in three dimensions. Input to the simulations included descriptions of the initial crystallographic texture and the effect of local texture-grain misorientation on boundary mobility. For the ease of an initially texture-free material, the normal grain growth with a grain-growth exponent of two and a log-normal grain-size distribution is replicated by this approach. Subsequent simulations with different non-random starting textures demonstrate that grain-growth behaviour is strongly affected by texture. Specifically, the average growth rate as quantified by the grain-growth exponent is found to decrease as a strong one-component texture is formed. In addition, during periods of slow growth, the simulations revealed that the microstructure consists of large grains with extended regions of small grains. In such cases, the grain-size distribution is predicted to become broad and not log-normal in nature.