An Overview of Accomplishments and Challenges in Recrystallization and Grain Growth

2007 ◽  
Vol 558-559 ◽  
pp. 33-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony D. Rollett ◽  
Abhijit P. Brahme ◽  
C.G. Roberts

The study of microstructural evolution in polycrystalline materials has been active for many decades so it is interesting to illustrate the progress that has been made and to point out some remaining challenges. Grain boundaries are important because their long-range motion controls evolution in many cases. We have some understanding of the essential features of grain boundary properties over the five macroscopic degrees of freedom. Excess free energy, for example, is dominated by the two surfaces that comprise the boundary although the twist component also has a non-negligible influence. Mobility is less well defined although there are some clear trends for certain classes of materials such as fcc metals. Computer simulation has made a critical contribution by showing, for example, that mobility exhibits an intrinsic crystallographic anisotropy even in the absence of impurities. At the mesoscopic level, we now have rigorous relationships between geometry and growth rates for individual grains in three dimensions. We are in the process of validating computer models of grain growth against 3D non-destructive measurements. Quantitative modeling of recrystallization that includes texture development has been accomplished in several groups. Other properties such as corrosion resistance are being related quantitatively to microstructure. There remain, however, numerous challenges. Despite decades of study, we still do not have complete cause-and-effect descriptions of most cases of abnormal grain growth. The response of nanostructured materials to annealing can lead to either unexpected resistance to coarsening, or, coarsening at unexpectedly low temperatures. General process models for recrystallization that can be applied to industrial alloys remain elusive although significant progress has been made for the specific case of aluminum alloy processing. Thin films often exhibit stagnation of grain growth that we do not fully understand, as well as abnormal grain growth. Grain boundaries respond to driving forces in more complicated ways than we understood. Clearly many exciting challenges remain in grain growth and recrystallization.

2011 ◽  
Vol 127 ◽  
pp. 89-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ye Chao Zhu ◽  
Jiong Hui Mao ◽  
Fa Tang Tan ◽  
Xue Liang Qiao

Low energy grain boundaries were considered to be important in abnormal grain growth by theoretical deduction. The disorientation angles and coincidence site lattice grain boundaries distribution of more than 20 Goss grains and their neighboring matrix grains in primary recrystallized Fe-3%Si alloy were investigated using an electron backscatter diffraction method. It was found that the frequency of low energy grain boundaries of Goss grains which are more likely to abnormally grow are higher than their neighboring matrix grains, which indicated that low energy grain boundaries play a dominant role in the abnormal grain growth of Fe-3%Si alloy. The result meets well with the abnormal grain growth theory.


2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (S2) ◽  
pp. 386-387
Author(s):  
N. Ravishankar ◽  
M.T. Johnson ◽  
C. Barry Carter

The migration of grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials can occur under a variety of driving forces. Grain growth in a single-phase material and Ostwald ripening of a second phase are two common processes involving boundary migration. The mass transport in each of these cases can be related to a chemical potential difference across the grains; due to curvature in the former case and due to a difference in the chemistry in the latter case. The mass transport across grains controls the densification process during sintering. In the case of liquid-phase sintering (LPS), a liquid film may be present at the grain boundaries which results in an enhanced mass transport between grains leading to faster densification. Hence, in LPS, it is important to understand mass transport across and along a boundary containing a liquid film. The use of bicrystals and tricrystals with glass layers in the boundary can provide a controlled geometry by which to study this phenomenon.


2006 ◽  
Vol 317-318 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Louet ◽  
Thierry Epicier ◽  
Gilbert Fantozzi

The target of this work is to investigate the effect of small additions of SiO2 or CaO on the sintering behavior and the microstructure of an ultrapure α-alumina compound. The sintering behavior has been investigated through extensive dilatometric study. SiO2 additions lead to a significant decrease in shrinkage rate during the intermediate stage of sintering whereas CaO is beneficent to densification. It has been found that during this stage which corresponds to the maximum of densification rate, grain boundaries diffusion controls densification through oxygen vacancies. The study of the densification behavior under different atmospheres help us to explain the role of the additives in agreement with electroneutrality equations. S.E.M. investigations confirm the well know correlation between doping and heterogeneous microstructures. After doping with SiO2 or CaO, abnormal grain growth appears at temperatures corresponding to the lowest eutectics given by Al2O3-SiO2 or Al2O3-CaO phase diagrams. H.R.T.E.M. observations show that below the critical temperatures for abnormal grain growth, additives enrichment is observed near grain boundaries (GBs). Above these temperatures, glassy phase for SiO2-doping and calciumhexaluminate (CA6) for CaO-doping are present at grain boundaries.


2012 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 2397-2406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Sonnweber-Ribic ◽  
Patric A. Gruber ◽  
Gerhard Dehm ◽  
Horst P. Strunk ◽  
Eduard Arzt

2005 ◽  
Vol 495-497 ◽  
pp. 1189-1194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Verbeken ◽  
Leo Kestens

The nucleation stage of secondary recrystallization has never been considered in detail. During the present study, nucleation of abnormal grain growth in ULC steel was studied. A specific nucleation mechanism was identified. This mechanism involved the disappearance of low angle grain boundaries, which gave rise to the onset of a local grain coalescence mechanism that clusters grains that were only separated by low angle grain boundaries. The impact of the nucleation stage remained visible in the texture that was obtained after complete abnormal grain growth.


2012 ◽  
Vol 715-716 ◽  
pp. 542-542
Author(s):  
Nong Moon Hwang

Abnormal grain growth (AGG), which is also called the secondary recrystallization, often takes place after primary recrystallization of deformed polycrystalline materials. A famous example is the evolution of the Goss texture after secondary recrystallization of Fe-3%Si steel. A selective AGG of Goss grains has remained a puzzle over 70 years in the metallurgy community since its first discovery by Goss in 1935. We suggested the sub-boundary enhanced solid-state wetting as a mechanism of selective AGG of Goss grains. According to this mechanism, if Goss grains have sub-boundaries of low energy, they have an exclusively high probability to grow by solid-state wetting along a triple junction compared with other grains without sub-boundaries. This aspect has been confirmed by Monte-Carlo and Phase Field Model simulations. The simulations showed that if the abnormally-growing grain has a high fraction of low energy boundaries with the matrix grains, it favors the sub-boundary enhanced solid-state wetting and produces many island and peninsular grains frequently observed near the growth front of abnormally-growing Goss grains. For example, the {111}<112> orientation has a S9 relationship with a Goss grain. Therefore, grains with the {111}<112> orientation provide a favorable condition for sub-boundary enhanced solid-state wetting. Three or four-sided grains with convex-inward boundaries, which are observed on a two-dimensional section of polycrystalline structures, are not shrinking but are growing, indicating that they are growing by wetting along a triple junction. These and other microstructural evidences of solid-state wetting could be observed relatively easily near the growth front of abnormally-growing Goss grains. The existence of sub-boundaries exclusively in abnormally-growing Goss grains has been experimentally confirmed. In order to understand why only Goss grains have sub-boundaries, the cold rolling process of the hot-rolled Fe-3%Si steel was analyzed by finite element method (FEM). The analysis showed that a small portion of Goss grains formed during hot rolling survives after cold rolling; the survived Goss grains have the lowest stored energy and are expected to undergo only recovery without recrystallization, producing sub-boundaries.


2004 ◽  
Vol 467-470 ◽  
pp. 1339-1344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Militzer ◽  
P. Freundlich ◽  
D. Bizzotto

Cu interconnects are essential in advanced integrated circuits to minimize the RC delay. In manufacturing these devices, Cu is deposited electrochemically using a plating bath containing organic additives. The as-deposited nanocrystalline Cu films undergo self-annealing at room temperature to form a micronsized grain structure by abnormal grain growth. Systematic experimental studies of self-annealing kinetics on model Cu films deposited on a Au substrate suggest that the rate of grain size evolution depends primarily on the initial grain size of the asdeposited film. A model for the observed abnormal grain growth process is proposed. Assuming that desorption of the organic additives leads to mobile grain boundaries, the onset of abnormal grain growth is attributed to a sufficiently low additive concentration such that a full coverage of all grain boundaries cannot be maintained. The incubation time of abnormal growth is then a logarithmic function of the initial grain size. The probability to find a growing grain is proportional to the number of grains per unit volume. This assumption is seen to be in good agreement with the experimental observations for subsequent abnormal grain growth rates. The limitations of the proposed model and the challenges to obtain further insight into the complex microstructure mechanisms during self-annealing are delineated.


2006 ◽  
Vol 11-12 ◽  
pp. 47-52
Author(s):  
Jong Hoon Lee ◽  
Min Cheol Chu ◽  
Seong Jai Cho ◽  
Duk Yong Yoon

Normal and abnormal grain growth has been observed in 70NbC-30Co with varying B concentrations at 1450°C and in alumina with varying impurity and additive concentrations at 1600°C -1650°C as typical systems with and without liquid matrix. The grain growth behavior depends on the roughening of the interfaces as indicated by the grain and grain boundary shapes. When 4% B is added to 70NbC-30Co, the NbC grains in Co-rich liquid matrix are spherical and undergo diffusion controlled normal growth, because the grain-liquid interface is rough. As the B concentration is decreased to 3, 2, 1, and 0%, the NbC grains become more cubic and the tendency for abnormal grain growth increases because of the step growth mechanism of the flat singular surface segments. When compacts of high purity alumina powder are sintered at 1650°C, the grain boundaries are smoothly curved, indicating their atomically rough structures. With increasing impurity content—in particular SiO2—in the alumina powder, abnormal grain growth becomes more pronounced with increasing number of flat grain boundaries. These singular grain boundaries are expected to move by a step mechanism and thus cause the abnormal grain growth. These results show that the interface roughening and hence the grain growth mode changes gradually with the additive or impurity concentrations. Therefore, the abnormal grain growth cannot be sharply distinguished from the normal grain growth as has been previously suggested in general and for alumina in particular.


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