Papers by Author: Jason Gruber

Abstract: The current study aims to improve our fundamental understanding of solute segregation and solute drag on migrating grain boundaries (GB) in three dimensions. Computer simulation combines finite difference and finite element methods. An exemplary case study is reported, in which a spherical grain is embedded inside a cubic grain and shrinks as a result of motion by curvature, as a preliminary to modeling grain growth in single phase materials. The results agree qualitatively with literature studies in 1-D.

Abstract: The distribution of grain boundary plane orientations in polycrystalline Ni has been measured before and after grain boundary engineering. The grain boundary engineered microstructure has a relatively higher concentration of Σ3 grain boundaries and, when compared to the initial structure, more of these boundaries have orientations that are inclined by more than 10° from the (111) orientation of the ideal coherent twin. Although the conventionally measured grain size is not affected by the grain boundary engineering process, the average size of the regions containing only Σ3n grain boundaries increases by nearly a factor of two. The observations indicate that the increase in the relative population of Σ3 grain boundaries results both from the preferential elimination of random grain boundaries and the generation of new Σ3 grain boundaries which do not have (111) grain boundary plane orientations.

Abstract: Through simulations with the moving finite element program GRAIN3D, we have studied the effect of anisotropic grain boundary energy on the distribution of boundary types in a polycrystal during normal grain growth. An energy function similar to that hypothesized for magnesia was used, and the simulated grain boundary distributions were found to agree well with measured distributions. The simulated results suggest that initially random microstructures develop nearly steady state grain boundary distributions that have local maxima and minima corresponding to local minima and maxima, respectively, of the energy function.