Grain growth in systems with anisotropic boundary mobility: Analytical model and computer simulation - art. no. 184102

We investigate the effect of anisotropy in grain boundary mobility on the d ynamics, morphology, and topology of grain growth, using both analytical an d numerical calculations on a generalized anisotropic phase field model. Th e dependence of the grain boundary mobility on both inclination and misorie ntation is included. In contrast to the isotropic case, where a single grai n in a polycrystalline system grows linearly with time, it is found that th e growth rate of a single n-sided grain in the anisotropic case is time dep endent. The growth rate of the average area is also time dependent, except for the two limiting cases of textured and randomly oriented grain structur es. However, strong grain shape anisotropy develops in the textured case, i ndicating that the grains grow in a non-self-similar manner. In the interme diate case, the deviation from a growth exponent of unity is of order 10%, while the size and edge distributions are similar to those of the isotropic system. Our results indicate that statistical self-similarity may not be r equired for linear growth kinetics and time-invariant size and edge distrib utions.