Cellular automata method for simulating microstructure evolution

Understanding and modelling microstructure evolution is a major concern in the scientific and engineering fields. Due to the difficulty of directly incorporating topological features into mathematical models, together with the difficulty of providing a space-time description, there has been increasing interest in using computer simulation to study and predict the microstructure evolution in a range of technologically important materials. A 2D cellular automaton (CA) model has been developed to reflect the microstructure evolution in processes such as nucleation, normal grain coarsening, abnormal grain coarsening, recrystallisation and phase-change. The probabilistic CA method incorporating Moore´s definition of a neighbourhood is used to simulate the microstructure evolution. The ultimate aim of this model is to understand and predict microstructure evolution quantitatively.