Anisotropic grain boundary properties for modeling grain growth phenomena

Anisotropy in grain boundary mobility and energy can be very important in determining microstructural evolution. In this paper, we examine the misorientation and temperature dependence of the boundary mobility and temperature using atomistic simulations. The activation energy and pre-exponential factor describing boundary mobility and the boundary energy vs. misorientation show cusps at misorientations corresponding to low Sigma boundaries. The temperature dependence of the mobility is consistent with the compensation effect. The boundary mobility corresponding to low Sigma boundaries can correspond to minima or maxima in the actual boundary mobility or can change from one to another as the temperature is changed. The consequences for microstructural evolution are discussed.