Effect of texture on the development of grain size distribution during normal grain growth

Abstract

A new trend in grain growth modeling is to consider the texture development during grain coarsening, and various statistical models have been developed (Novikov, Bunge, Abbruzzese/Luecke) for this purpose. For the case of texture changes during grain growth all these models predict different growth kinetics for the grains of different texture components. This means that the average grain sizes for grains of different orientations should be different. Strong texture changes have been observed during grain growth for instance in CuZn, AlMn and AlMg alloys. However, the average grain sizes for grains of different orientations have not been investigated experimentally yet. This was the aim of the present work. Isothermal grain growth of {alpha}-brass and copper were analyzed by optical microscopy, neutron diffraction and EBSP-measurements (Electron Backscattering Pattern). The EBSP-technique was used to separate the average grain sizes and the grain size distributions of the main texture components in both materials. It was found that the average grain size of grains of different orientations in the investigated materials are statistically significant different, and the results are discussed with reference to the statistical models mentioned above.