Statistical behaviour of interfaces subjected to curvature flow and torque effects applied to microstructural evolutions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how curvature flow and torque effects influence the movement of grain boundaries in metals, revealing that torque effects can significantly complicate traditional curvature-driven models of microstructural evolution.

Contribution

It introduces 2D anisotropic full-field simulations to analyze the impact of torque effects on interface migration, challenging the assumption that curvature alone governs grain boundary kinetics.

Findings

Torque effects can significantly alter interface migration behavior.

Neglecting torque effects may lead to inaccurate models of microstructural evolution.

Curvature influence on local kinetics remains important despite complex torque interactions.

Abstract

The movement of grain boundaries in pure metals and alloys with a low concentration of dislocations has been historically proved to follow curvature flow behavior. This mechanism is typically known as grain growth (GG). However, recent 3D in-situ experimental results tend to question this global picture concerning the influence of the curvature on the kinetics of interface migration. This article explains, thanks to 2D anisotropic full-field simulations, how the torque effects can complexify these discussions. It is then illustrated that neglecting torque effects in full-field formulations remains potentially a strong hypothesis. The apparent mobility can be much more complex than expected without necessarily questioning the influence of the curvature on the local kinetic equation.