Investigation of limiting grain size and microstructure homogeneity in the presence of second phase particles using the Monte Carlo method

Abstract

The prediction of material microstructure is of great interest to the material designers since the property and performance of materials depend strongly on their microstructures. In this research the Monte Carlo method and grain growth phenomenon have been used to predict the limiting grain size in the presence of second phase particles. The results showed a good agreement with the previous published results predicted by the analytical models. It was found that the lattice orientation parameter, Q , strongly affects the kinetic of the grain growth. The experimental and theoretical results of limiting grain size predicted by Monte Carlo method showed that by decreasing the value of Q the discrepancy between the analytically calculated and the Monte Carlo predicted limiting grain sizes increases. The prediction of smallest and largest grain size of microstructure was considered as a new approach for assessing the homogeneity of microstructure in this study. Furthermore, some experiments were carried out to verify the simulated limiting grain sizes predicted using the Monte Carlo method. It was concluded that Monte Carlo method can be utilized to assess the grain growth in industrial works.