On the role of grain topology in dynamic grain growth — 2D microstructural modeling

Microstructural modification processes like dynamic recrystallization and grain growth can have a major effect on the transient and (semi-)steady state flow behaviour of deforming materials. Work on metals and ceramics suggests that deformation-enhanced changes in grain topology and the corresponding increase in fraction of non-hexagonal grains, called cellular defect fraction, can promote grain growth during deformation. The present study tests this hypothesis, by investigating the evolution of the cellular defect fraction during deformation, accompanied by grain growth, of aggregates with distributed grain sizes. For this purpose, we made use of the ELLE 2D microstructural modeling package. We simulated and quantified microstructural evolution under conditions where both surface energy driven grain boundary migration (GBM) and homogeneous deformation or grain size sensitive (GSS) straining were allowed to occur. The simulations show that contemporaneous GBM and simple geometrical straining of grain aggregates with distributed grain size and coordination number lead to extra grain neighbor switching, an increase in defect fraction, and enhanced grain growth. An increase in defect fraction was also found in a selected set of natural calcite mylonites that, with increasing temperature, show an increase in grain size and contribution of GSS creep. Analysis of defect fraction thus appears to be a good microstructural tool to establish whether or not a material has experienced normal static (defect fraction ∼ 0.7) or dynamic grain growth (defect fraction ∼ 0.8).