Abnormal grain growth of Goss grains in Fe–3% Si steel driven by sub-boundary-enhanced solid-state wetting: Analysis by Monte Carlo simulation

Abstract

The selective abnormal grain growth (AGG) of Goss grains in Fe–3% Si steel was investigated using a parallel Monte Carlo (MC) simulation based on the concept of sub-boundary-enhanced solid-state wetting. Goss grains that contain low angle sub-boundaries will induce solid-state wetting against grain boundaries in the matrix that exhibit a moderate variation in grain boundary energy, as expected from the variation in boundary type. AGG generates a sharp Goss texture provided that only Goss-oriented grains have the required sub-grain structure to grow selectively by sub-boundary-induced wetting and that other orientations lack the required content of low angle boundaries. This behavior is shown in three-dimensional MC simulations of microstructure evolution with textures and grain boundary distributions matched to experimental data.