Phase field crystal modeling of subgrain coarsening
Hallberg, Håkan LU
; Jensen, Dorte Juul
and Yu, Tianbo
(2026)
In Acta Materialia
320.
- Abstract
Recovery of plastically deformed metals involves several stages of substructure evolution during which dislocation entanglements and networks become increasingly organized, thereby lowering the stored energy in the material. Central to recovery is the formation and evolution of subgrains, which is also recognized as a recrystallization precursor. In this paper, subgrain coarsening is investigated by means of phase field crystal (PFC) simulations. PFC enables tracking subgrain evolution with atom-scale spatial resolution and over extended time scales, beyond the reach of alternative methods such as molecular dynamics simulations. Different subgrain models are devised to investigate various relevant conditions for subgrain coarsening,... (More)
Recovery of plastically deformed metals involves several stages of substructure evolution during which dislocation entanglements and networks become increasingly organized, thereby lowering the stored energy in the material. Central to recovery is the formation and evolution of subgrains, which is also recognized as a recrystallization precursor. In this paper, subgrain coarsening is investigated by means of phase field crystal (PFC) simulations. PFC enables tracking subgrain evolution with atom-scale spatial resolution and over extended time scales, beyond the reach of alternative methods such as molecular dynamics simulations. Different subgrain models are devised to investigate various relevant conditions for subgrain coarsening, both with and without the presence of high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs). The results show that subgrain coarsening initially takes place by sub-boundary dissolution and rearrangement. At later stages, the coarsening is dominated by subgrain boundary migration—somewhat similar to normal grain growth—but with instances of subgrain coalescence. Lattice rotation within the subgrain network is demonstrated to occur gradually under the formation of intra-subgrain orientation gradients. The results also reveal that a presence of HAGBs is not a prerequisite for subgrain coarsening, even if involving coalescence, contrary to the classical assumption. Subgrain coarsening is, in fact, shown to proceed more efficiently without any HAGB influence in all of the investigated scenarios.
(Less)
- author
- Hallberg, Håkan
LU
; Jensen, Dorte Juul
and Yu, Tianbo
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-11-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Grain boundary, Grain boundary migration, Phase field crystal, Subgrain, Subgrain coalescence, Subgrain coarsening
- in
- Acta Materialia
- volume
- 320
- article number
- 122685
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105048964219
- ISSN
- 1359-6454
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.actamat.2026.122685
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 4feb9817-2111-4378-bfa8-63d98c3916ff
- date added to LUP
- 2026-09-10 08:07:36
- date last changed
- 2026-09-10 08:28:59
@article{4feb9817-2111-4378-bfa8-63d98c3916ff,
abstract = {{<p>Recovery of plastically deformed metals involves several stages of substructure evolution during which dislocation entanglements and networks become increasingly organized, thereby lowering the stored energy in the material. Central to recovery is the formation and evolution of subgrains, which is also recognized as a recrystallization precursor. In this paper, subgrain coarsening is investigated by means of phase field crystal (PFC) simulations. PFC enables tracking subgrain evolution with atom-scale spatial resolution and over extended time scales, beyond the reach of alternative methods such as molecular dynamics simulations. Different subgrain models are devised to investigate various relevant conditions for subgrain coarsening, both with and without the presence of high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs). The results show that subgrain coarsening initially takes place by sub-boundary dissolution and rearrangement. At later stages, the coarsening is dominated by subgrain boundary migration—somewhat similar to normal grain growth—but with instances of subgrain coalescence. Lattice rotation within the subgrain network is demonstrated to occur gradually under the formation of intra-subgrain orientation gradients. The results also reveal that a presence of HAGBs is not a prerequisite for subgrain coarsening, even if involving coalescence, contrary to the classical assumption. Subgrain coarsening is, in fact, shown to proceed more efficiently without any HAGB influence in all of the investigated scenarios.</p>}},
author = {{Hallberg, Håkan and Jensen, Dorte Juul and Yu, Tianbo}},
issn = {{1359-6454}},
keywords = {{Grain boundary; Grain boundary migration; Phase field crystal; Subgrain; Subgrain coalescence; Subgrain coarsening}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{11}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Acta Materialia}},
title = {{Phase field crystal modeling of subgrain coarsening}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2026.122685}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.actamat.2026.122685}},
volume = {{320}},
year = {{2026}},
}