Seminar

Date 2018-05-01 

MSE Regular Seminar



■ Title Principles of Chemically Induced Interface Migration and Abnormal Grain Growth


Speaker:  Prof. Duk-Yong Yoon (KAIST MSE)  

 

■ Date and Time :  5/1 (Tue) 16:00

 

■ Venue :  Applied Engineering Department (W1-1) Multimedia Lecture Hall (1st Floor)

 

 Abstract : 

In 1970s it was observed that grain boundaries and intergranular liquid films migrated when they came into contact with solute sources. Solute-rich alloys were produced behind the migrating interfaces.  Hillert proposed that the  solute atoms diffused ahead of the migrating interfaces producing coherency  strains that drove the migration. In this work solute atoms of large and small size  were used to vary the coherency strain from negative to positive values and when the estimated strain was 0, the interfaces did not migrate. This result was a definitive evidence for Hillert’s coherency strain theory and provides a foundation for a new perspective on solute diffusion process in polycrystalline systems .

      In some polycrystals the grains grow normally with a narrow size distribution which remains constant. Polycrystals sometimes show also abnormal grain growth  where only some grains grow to very large sizes while the others remain relatively small. In some alloys prepared by liquid phase sintering at low temperatures the grains are polyhedral with flat surfaces and grow abnormally. These flat surfaces are singular with the minimum surface energy with respect to the surface orientation. The singular surface moves forward by two dimensional nucleation of steps and hence the large grains grow much faster than the rest, resulting in abnormal growth. At high temperatures the grain surfaces undergo roughening transition and the grains become nearly spherical with atomically rough surface. The grains then grow normally.  The polycrystalline single phase alloys (without any liquid phase) also show the same roughening transition of grain boundaries with temperature increase and the change of grain growth from abnormal to normal. These results show that abnormal grain growth is caused by the nucleation and growth of steps on singular interfaces. In some materials  additives or change of atmosphere can also induce interface roughening and hence the change of grain growth behavior. His theory has been applied to the growth of large single crystals of various shapes and compositions from polycrystals.