AbstractGrain growth in polycrystals occurs by decreasing the total number of grains as a result of the disappearance of small ones. That is why the both the kinetic and topological details of shrinking of small grains are important.In 2-D, “uniform boundary model” assumptions imply the von Neumann-Mullins law, and all grains having less than 6 neighbors tend to shrink. The mean topological class ef vanishing grains was found experimentally to be about 4.3. This result suggests that most vanishing grains are either 4- or 5-sided, not transforming to 3-sided ones.Shrinking of 4- and 5-sided 2-D grains was studied experimentally on transparent, pure SCN, (succinonitrile) polycrystalline films and by direct computer simulation of grain boundary capillary motion together with triple junctions. It was found that the grains which are much smaller than their neighbors are topologically stable.
A crystal symmetry-invariant Kobayashi–Warren–Carter grain boundary model and its implementation using a thresholding algorithm
