Grain boundary properties depend on the crystalline orientations of neighboring grains. They vary with the misorientation between grains (disclination) and the boundary's inclination relative to the crystal orientations. This anisotropy has a significant impact on the grain shape, the growth dynamics and the prevalence of particular grain orientations and boundary types. Accurately modeling disclination and inclination dependence of grain boundaries remains a great challenge.

Models & Benchmarking

The models allow for an accurate representation of the misorientation and inclination dependence of  grain boundary energy and mobility, while the formulation enables scaling across a wide range of length scales. 

• Quantitative phase-field approach for simulating grain growth in anisotropic systems with arbitrary inclination and misorientation dependence (2008)

• Quantitative analysis of grain boundary properties in a generalized phase field model for grain growth in anisotropic systems (2008)

• New phase-field model for polycrystalline systems with anisotropic grain boundary properties (2022)

  • Supporting materials and codes with the paper 

• Benchmarking of different strategies to include anisotropy in a curvature-driven multi-phase-field model (2024)

• On the rotation invariance of multi-order parameter models for grain growth (2010)

• Comparative study of two phase-field models for grain grwoth (2009)

Applications

• Effect of strong nonuniformity in grain boundary energy on 3-D grain growth behavior: A phase-field simulation study (2017)

• Effect of grain boundary energy anisotropy on highly textured grain structures studied by phase-field simulations (2014)

• Grain growth in thin films with a fibre texture studied by phase-field simulations and mean field modelling (2010)

• Bounding box framework for efficient phase field simulation of grain growth in anisotropic systems (2011)

• A phase field model for grain growth and thermal grooving in thin films with orientation dependent surface energy (2007)

• Influence of surface energy anisotropy on nucleation and crystallographic texture of polycrystalline deposits (2024)

During recrystallization, new, nearly defect-free grains grow at the expense of the deformed matrix through  migration of a recrystallization front. It has been observed that individual recrystallization boundary segments move at different rates and can show jerky motion when local heterogeneity in the deformation field are present. 

In collaboration with researchers from DTU (Dorte Juul Jensen, Yubin Zhang) and collaborators Andy Godfrey, Vishal Yadav--a previous member of the Micostructure Simulation Lab, Leuven--, and Runguang Li, we have studied the impact of spatial variations in the deformation field on the velocity and shape of migrating recrystallization boundaries, combining in-situ characterization with phase-field simulations. 

Further reading

• New understanding of static recrystallization from phase-field simulations (2024)

• Effects of dislocation boundary spacings and stored energy on boundary migration during recrystallization: A phase-field analysis (2021)

• A phase-field investigation of recrystallization boundary migration into heterogeneous deformation energy fields: Effects of dislocation boundary sharpness (2021)

• Influence of geometrical alignment of the deformation microstructure on local migration of grain boundaries during recystallization: A phase-field study (2021)

• A phase-field simulation study of irregular grain boundary migration during recrystallization (2015)

• Phase-field simulation study of the migration of recrystallization boundaries (2013)

• Advancement in characterization and modeling of boundary migration during recrystallization (2011)