A 2D level set finite element grain coarsening study with heterogeneous grain boundary energies

In a previous article (Fausty et al., 2018) a new level-set finite element formulation for pure grain growth with heterogeneous grain boundary energies (i.e. one energy per grain interface) was developed and validated for simple configurations. In this work, the authors apply this new tool to the simulation of two dimensional grain growth of polycrystals using different disorientation dependent grain boundary energy functions. The results of these full-field calculations are assessed using the time dependent evolution of the following criteria: grain size, grain number, total interface energy, grain boundary disorientation distribution, grain boundary energy distribution and number of neighboring grains distribution. Of particular interest is the relationship between the grain boundary energy function and the evolution of the grain boundary network in the sense of both its morphology and its constitution. Some notable results are that the disorientation distribution evolution is inversely correlated to the grain boundary energy function itself and that the kinetics of grain growth are heavily effected by the heterogeneity of the system. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.