Numerical simulation of grain growth in liquid phase sintered materials - II. Study of isotropic grain growth

The Potts model was used to study grain growth in liquid phase sintered materials. Its application to the study of isotropic grain growth by Ostwald ripening in a fully wetting system will be presented. The interpretation of the simulation results will be described and discussed. It was found that the set of simulation parameters used gave diffusion-controlled grain growth for solid fraction ranging from 0.30 to 0.90. The grain size distribution varied with solid fraction, becoming broader and more peaked with increasing solid fraction. The skewness was near zero at solid fraction of 0.41 and shifted to larger grain sizes with increasing solid fraction. This shift in the skewness of grain size distribution is not predicted by previous analytical or numerical models; however, it is consistent with experimental data collected by Fang and Patterson [Acta metall., 1993, 41, 2017] in the W-Ni-Fe system. (C) 1998 Acta Metallurgica Inc.