Simulation of grain coarsening in two dimensions by cellular-automaton

This paper presents a computer simulation model, namely Cellular Automaton (CA), which aims at investigating the behaviour of normal grain coarsening in 2D that corresponds well to the described physical model. The CA model t akes into account the following: the energy barrier of cellular transition depends on the energy of the grain boundary; thr energy of boundaries depen ds on the misorientation of the grains and the energy of the cells follows the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. The model was tested on both simple geo metrical configurations and on real structures. The effect of temperature, orientation difference, activation energy, and boundary energy for the kine tics of grain coarsening were analysed and discussed. The optimal orientati on value, q(max), was greater than 64, and at smaller q(max) values non-rea l structures develop. The rate and kinetics of coarsening depend on a q(max ) value up to 64, the energy barrier and the boundary energy. The rate of c oarsening cannot be described by only one exponential function over a wide temperature range. (C) 2001 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Scie nce Lid. All rights reserved.