Solute drag-controlled grain growth in magnesium investigated by quasi in-situ orientation mapping and level-set simulations

Critical properties of metallic materials, such as the yield stress, corrosion resistance and ductility depend on the microstructure and its grain size and size distribution. Solute atoms that favorably segregate to grain boundaries produce a pinning atmosphere that exerts a drag pressure on the boundary motion, which strongly affects the grain growth behavior during annealing. In the current work, the characteristics of grain growth in an annealed Mg-1 wt.%Mn-1 wt.%Nd magnesium alloy were investigated by advanced experimental and modeling techniques. Systematic quasi in-situ orientation mappings with a scanning electron microscope were performed to track the evolution of local and global microstructural characteristics as a function of annealing time. Solute segregation at targeted grain boundaries was measured using three-dimensional atom probe tomography. Level-set computer simulations were carried with different setups of driving forces to explore their contribution to the microstructure development with and without solute drag. The results showed that the favorable growth advantage for some grains leading to a transient stage of abnormal grain growth is controlled by several drivers with varying importance at different stages of annealing. For longer annealing times, residual dislocation density gradients between large and smaller grains are no longer important, which leads to microstructure stability due to predominant solute drag. Local fluctuations in residual dislocation energy and solute concentration near grain boundaries cause different boundary segments to migrate at different rates, which affects the average growth rate of large grains and their evolved shape.& COPY; 2023 Chongqing University. Publishing services provided by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ) Peer review under responsibility of Chongqing University