Grain boundary engineering, which increases the special boundary fraction, may improve microstructural stability during annealing. Different processing routes were undertaken to establish the effectiveness of each and to better understand which microstructural features determine the resulting stability. It was found that multiple cycles of grain boundary engineering resulted in a material that resisted abnormal grain growth better than did other processing routes, despite similarities in special boundary fraction, grain size and general boundary connectivity among the as-processed materials.

Effect of Grain Boundary Engineering on Microstructural Stability during Annealing. S.M.Schlegel, S.Hopkins, M.Frary: Scripta Materialia, 2009, 61[1], 88-91