Materials Science Forum Vol. 753

Abstract: Abstract. Ferritic-martensitic steels like Eurofer-97 are candidate structural materials for future fusion reactors. In the tempered state, this steel contains fine particles dispersed in the ferritic matrix. The aim of this work is to investigate abnormal grain growth in Eurofer-97 steel. The microstructural evolution was followed by isothermal annealing between 200 and 800°C (ferritic phase field) after cold rolling to 70, 80, and 90% reductions. Representative samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy in the backscattered electron mode. Microtexture was evaluated by electron backscattered diffraction. We propose a mechanism based on the size advantage acquired by nuclei with misorientation angles above 45º relative to their nearest neighbors to explain abnormal grain growth. Abnormal grain growth textures have components belonging to the α- and γ-fibers with predominance of {111}, {111}, and {100}.

Abstract: It has been observed that grain size of Goss secondary grain has a strong correlation with deviation angle from the exact Goss orientation and sharper Goss grain has larger grain diameter. This orientation selectivity of secondary recrystallization has been investigated with the statistical model of grain growth in which inhibitor and texture are taken into account. The model assumes that sharper Goss grain has a higher frequency of CSL boundaries to the matrix grains and thus has lower statistical grain boundary energy and suffers lower pinning force from the inhibitor. The analysis showed that this model successfully explains orientation selectivity and depicts the effect of inhibitor and texture.

Abstract: We report recent research in our laboratory on the thermal stabilization of nanocrystalline binary alloys with ternary additions. Fe-Cr and Fe-Ni alloys with the ternary addition of Zr are studied. The thermal stability of these nanocrystalline alloys, prepared by mechanical alloying of powders, is studied by XRD, TEM and hardness as a function of annealing temperature. The relative importance of thermodynamic or kinetic stabilization in various temperature ranges is discussed for the different alloys. In agreement with our recent model for thermodynamic stabilization, it is found that Zr solute additions are more effective in stabilizing the nanocrystalline grain size in the Fe-Cr than in the Fe-Ni system.

Abstract: Grain growth kinetics in an AISI 347 stainless steel with Nb content up to 0.7%wt was studied during the isothermal holding in the temperature range of 1100-1270°C for various periods. Abnormal grain growth was observed even in the presence of a large amount of precipitates. The kinetics of normal grain growth was tracked by metallographic measurements and fitted by the classical modeling, which led to two important parameters of activation energy Q and growth exponent n derived. Both of them are larger than the usual values for grain growth in the Nb-microalloyed steels due to the much larger content of Nb in the present steel.

Abstract: In the present work it is revealed by modified Potts model simulations and theoretical considerations that self-similarity is a feature of junction controlled grain growth as it can be found in nanocrystalline materials. To this aim the influence of the grain junctions – boundary faces, triple lines and quadruple points – on grain growth is analyzed by attributing each type of junction an own specific energy and mobility yielding nine types of growth kinetics, each characterized by a self-similar scaling form of the growth law and a corresponding self-similar grain size distribution.

Abstract: In the titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V the dual-phase grain structure, which forms during thermo-mechanical processing, is of high importance due to its effect on the mechanical properties. In general the most significant microstructural parameters are the amount of alpha and beta phase as well as their grain size. For this reason a new cellular automata method (CA) was developed to predict the evolving grain structure during isothermal and non-isothermal heat treatment. The probabilistic CA model is based on the diffusion controlled movement of grain and phase boundaries. During temperature changes an algorithm is adjusting alpha and beta phase fraction to maintain equilibrium phase values. Hence, the CA is capable to calculate grain coarsening as well as grain growth and shrinking in the two-phase area while heating and isothermal holding at forging temperature. The initial microstructure can be imported form virtual created microstructures, real micrographs and EBSD-images. The results are mean grain diameters, grain size distributions and virtually simulated microstructures which can be easily compared with real micrographs. The predicted microstructures are showing a good correlation to data in literature and experimental results.

Abstract: In this work, we utilize recent software for precipitation kinetics simulation and couple it with models for grain growth. Basis of our studies is the thermo-kinetic software MatCalc, which has been designed for simulation of the evolution of precipitates in general multi-component multi-phase alloy systems. Grain growth approaches of different complexity are incorporated into the precipitation kinetics framework, investigated with respect to their coupling behavior with precipitation and precipitate dissolution and, finally, benchmarked on typical grain growth problems of industrial practice. The example presented in this work comprises austenite grain growth studies accompanying TiN and NbC precipitation/dissolution during austenitization of a Ti/Nb microalloyed steel. It is demonstrated that the present approach represents a versatile tool for analysis of simultaneous grain growth and precipitation in industrially important alloy systems.

Abstract: The present paper studies grain growth in the presence of inert particles by performing large-scale simulations using a parallel Monte Carlo Potts model. The effect of the second phase particles on the grain size distribution (GSD) is analyzed. The GSDs diverge markedly from log-normal distribution for normal grain growth case. For the cases with low volume fraction of particles, we find that the grain size distributions approach log-normal as stagnation takes hold. For the cases with a high volume fraction of particles, however, medium-size grains reach the log-normal distribution but both lower and upper tails diverge noticeably from the log-normal distribution over time.

Abstract: Three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations with real grain orientations are performed to study the role of precipitates and sub-boundaries in the abnormal grain growth. According to the simulation results, sub-boundaries in the abnormally growing grain and precipitates in the matrix grains are necessary for the abnormal grain growth. The simulation results can be best explained by the mechanism of sub-boundary enhanced solid state wetting. The simulated microstructure is very similar to that experimentally observed.

Abstract: The effect of the triple line energy on grain growth was studied by means of computer simulations with a network model. The results showed that the driving force stemming from the triple lines can influence significantly the evolution of grain growth.