Molecular dynamics simulations were used to study steady-state capillarity-driven grain boundary migration in 3 dimensions for a series of <111> tilt boundaries. The reduced boundary mobility and boundary enthalpy were determined as a function of misorientation and temperature. For the misorientations examined, the reduced mobility was greatest, and the activation energy for migration lowest, for the Σ7 misorientation. The reduced mobility was an Arrhenius function of temperature. Excellent agreement between the present 3-dimensional simulation results, and those obtained previously for 2 dimensions and by experiment, was found for many features; apart from the degree of grain boundary mobility. The mobilities found from the simulations were much higher than those found by experiment. The activation energies for migration were much lower. It was suggested that the experimental measurements were affected by factors such as impurity drag.

Curvature Driven Grain Boundary Migration in Aluminum - Molecular Dynamics Simulations. H.Zhang, M.Upmanyu, D.J.Srolovitz: Acta Materialia, 2005, 53[1], 79-86