2-DIMENSIONAL NORMAL GRAIN-GROWTH - TOPOLOGICAL ASPECTS

Normal grain growth in polycrystals is an important example of a capillarity driven coarsening phenomenon where topological structure of the system plays a major role. The process is practically important and attracts much interest, in particular in two-dimensional (2D) polycrystals because of the growing technological importance of thin polycrystalline films. In the present paper we discuss various approaches to normal grain growth in 2D polycrystals. We stay mostly within the framework of the uniform boundary model. This model provides a reasonable simplification leading to the Von Neumann-Mullins relation that relates the rate of growth of an individual grain to its local topology. Comparing different approaches-relatively simple mean-field theories, more sophisticated models incorporating real topology, and computer simulations adequately reproducing local equations of motion-we identify the principal factors responsible for different features of the phenomenon.