Relation between Widths of the Grain Boundary Energy Cusps at Special Misorientations and the Microstructural Characteristics in the Sintering of a Fe-Cu-C Alloy

A new Monte Carlo model, three-dimensional multi-particle model, was developed to simulate the three-dimensional microstructural characteristic in the sintering of a Fe-Cu-C alloy. The probability model incorporated the energy-misorientation relationship assigned to randomly generated neighboring grains. The effect on microstructural characteristics of adding doped materials was also quantified and related to the energy-misorientation relationship. The present Monte Carlo model accounts for the relationship between the grain boundary energy and the dihedral angle distribution and determines the effect of the width of the grain boundary energy cusp at the special misorientation on the contiguity and coordination number in the sintering of a Fe-Cu-C alloy. All specimens show a strong correlation between the contiguityĈ and coordination numberN , irrespective of the width of the grain boundary energy cusp at the special misorientation. The correlation can be expressed as:N /N O =Ĉ N /Ĉ O , whereN O is the mean coordination number,Ĉ O is the mean contiguity, andĈ N is the mean contiguity having the coordination numberN .