Criteria for the occurrence of the diffusion-induced grain boundary migration

Recent experimental data on diffusion-induced grain boundary migration (DIGM) are reviewed. For the case of the coherency strain driving force,quantitative criteria for the occurrence of DIGM are suggested, which establish the relationship between the net driving force for grain boundary migration,the diffusivity in the vicinity of the grain boundary, the enthalpy of the grain boundary segregation, the misfit parameter for the solute atoms in the matrix and the solubility of the diffusing element in the matrix. It is shown that an upper limit for the grain boundary velocity during DIGM exists due to the solute drag effect.