Abnormal grain growth in Al-3.5Cu

Significant abnormal grain growth has been observed in an Al-3.5 wt.% Cu alloy at temperatures where the volume fraction of small CuAl2 particles was less than about 0.01. The initial fine-grained material had a weak crystallographic texture and there was no indication that any special boundaries were involved in the abnormal growth. Island grains isolated within the abnormal grains also showed no indication of special orientation relationships with their surrounding grains. Measurements indicated that the island grains initially had a size advantage over other matrix grains. The fraction of pinning phase was much lower at abnormal grain boundaries than at boundaries in the fine-grained matrix into which they were growing. A variety of simulations were made, including attempts to model that difference in pinning phase distribution, but none of these were successful in predicting abnormal grain growth. (C) 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.