The kinetics of relaxation of the excess volume, in a non-equilibrium grain boundary, that occurred by the emission of non-equilibrium vacancies into the grain volume from the boundary during isothermal annealing was considered. It was shown that, under equilibrium conditions, the concentration of lattice vacancies near to the boundary could exceed (by 2 orders of magnitude) their concentration far from the boundary. An analytical expression was obtained that described the change in the grain-boundary self-diffusion coefficient during annealing.

Kinetics of the Recovery of Diffusion Properties of Non-Equilibrium Grain Boundaries. V.N.Perevezentsev, A.S.Pupynin, Y.V.Svirina: Physics of Metals and Metallography, 2002, 94[2], 141-6