grain growth

http://www.magnet.ubc.ca/wiki/images/5/5a/Abhijit_Mg2012.pdf

Deformation in metals and alloys is accompanied by high hardening rates and high dislocation 

content. Static annealing of deformed metals or forming operations at elevated temperatures can 

lead to static and dynamic recrystallization (SRX and DRX). The resultant texture and hence the 

properties of such a material are determined by the nucleation and growth of recrystallized grains 

My coworkers (Dan Gianola, Yixiang Gan, and Kevin Hemker) and I have published research results in the December 18th, 2009 issue of Science.  In this work, we perform tension tests on specially designed thin film samples to studying the influence of different stress and strain states on mechanically-induced grain growth in nanocrystalline aluminum.  Our results indicate that shear stresses drive grain boundaries to move in a manner consistent with recent molecular dynamics simulations and theoretical predictions of coupled grain boundary migration.

Introduction

The blogosphere is abuzz with the latest report of the generalisation of the von Neumann-Mullins grain growth relation to 3 (and N) dimensions by MacPherson and Srolovitz (As an interesting aside, almost all the reports say mathematical structure of beer foam structure resolved, or words to that effect --hence, I also decided to join the bandwagon on that one). I heard Prof. Srolovitz describe the work in a seminar nearly six months ago. Based on my notes of the talk, I would like the explain their work in this post. Curvature in the following refers to mean curvature (and not Gaussian).