Doctoral seminars

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Thursday, May 31, 15:00-16:00, Celestijnenlaan 200S01.04, 3001 Leuven-Heverlee

A bounding box algorithm for three-dimensional phase field simulations of grain growth

By Liesbeth Vanherpe, Department of Computerscience, Scientific Computing Research Group

Abstract:

The microstructure of materials often consists of multiple grains with different crystallographic orientations. The study of the evolution of these grains is of great technological importance, because many material properties, such as strength and toughness, depend on the mean grain size and grain size distribution. Phase field modelling has proven to be a versatile tool for simulating microstructural evolution phenomena, such as grain growth in polycrystalline materials. However, the computing time and computing memory requirements of a phase field model pose severe limitations on the number of phase field variables that can be taken into account in a practical implementation.

We propose a bounding box method that allows the use of a large number of phase field variables without excessive memory usage or computational requirements. To illustrate the applicability of the bounding box algorithm beyond ideal grain growth, the algorithm is applied to a three-dimensional model for grain growth in the presence of second-phase particles.