Monte Carlo simulation of grain boundary precipitation

Microstructural evolution which involves both grain growth and grain boundary precipitation is simulated by the Monte Carlo computer simulation techniques. The grain boundary precipitation is modeled by assigning different site energies between the matrix (M) and precipitate (P) phase. The amount of undercooling and the matrix grain size were varied to study the influence of these quantities on grain boundary precipitation kinetics. At low undercooling, the reverse transformation from P to M influences the precipitation kinetics since grain corner nucleation is dominant. The frequency of grain boundary nucleation increases with the amount of undercooling. At high undercooling, homogeneous nucleation within grains becomes dominant.