Recent advances in the kinetics of normal/abnormal grain growth: a review

Abstract

Recent progress in the kinetics of grain coarsening and abnormal grain growth (AGG) is presented in this overview article. The factors affecting the kinetics of grain growth is reviewed with the emphasis on the recent findings on the solute drag and Zener pinning effects as well as the special case of duplex alloys, where the latter is discussed for the behavior of dual-phase steels during intercritical annealing. The common isothermal kinetics models for grain growth are listed, which is followed by the critical discussion on the simplifications and the commonly used methods for the determination of grain growth exponent (n) and activation energy (Q). The obtained values of n and Q for several classes of important engineering alloys such as microalloyed steels, stainless steels, magnesium alloys, aluminum alloys, titanium alloys, and high-entropy alloys are summarized with the discussion on the obtained values of kinetics parameters and their deviation from the theoretical expectations. Finally, the factors leading to AGG (such as the coarsening and dissolution of pinning particles and the crystallographic texture), the proposed mechanisms (such as the solid-state wetting and the grain boundary faceting/defaceting phenomena), and the kinetics of AGG (based on the empirical power law and the similarity of AGG to primary recrystallization in the form of secondary recrystallization) are reviewed. This overview can shed light on the understanding of grain growth and its effects.