Analysis on topological grain forms via large-scale serial sectioning experiment and Monte Carlo simulation

• We investigated topological grain forms by large-scale serial sectioning experiment.
• We simulate 3-D grain growth in large scale with Monte Carlo method.
• Noticeable topological bias between pure iron and Monte Carlo grains is observed.
• Monte Carlo grains have the lowest average dispersion for the distribution of edges per face.

Topological forms of three-dimensional grains were investigated by means of large-scale serial sectioning experiment (16,254 pure iron grains) and Monte Carlo-Potts model simulation (150,428 simulation grains). Noticeable topological bias among pure iron grains, Monte Carlo grains and other type of cells is observed in terms of the most frequent grain forms. Moreover, Monte Carlo structure has lower average dispersion for edge distributions of grains than pure iron microstructure, Poisson-Voronoi structure and isolated convex polyhedra, which indicates that some differences in kinetics or evolution processes may play a role in such topological differentiation.