Numerical simulation of grain growth in liquid phase sintered materials-I. Model

Abstract

The simulation technique based on the Potts model, originally applied to microstructural coarsening by Srolovitz et al. [Scripta metall., 1983, 17, 241] has been extended to study grain growth by Ostwald ripening in liquid phase sintered materials. The model, which makes no assumptions about solid fractions, grain shapes or diffusion fields around grains, has been developed and characterized in this investigation. A two-dimensional, square lattice is used to digitize the microstructure. The representation of the two phases, solid grains in a liquid matrix, were achieved by populating the lattice with a two-component, canonical ensemble, where the two components were designated as A and B. Grain growth was driven by the reduction in interfacial free energy, which was defined by the bond energies between neighboring sites. The solution-reprecipitation mechanism was simulated by allowing neighboring sites to exchange places via the classical Metropolis algorithm.