Diffusion in polycrystalline microstructures

Mass transport properties are important in polycrystalline materials used as protective films. Traditionally, such properties have been studied by examining model polycrystalline structures, such as a regular array of straight grain boundaries. However, these models do not account for a number of features of real grain ensembles, including the grain size distribution and the topological aspects of grain boundaries. In this study, a finite difference scheme is developed to study transient and steady-state mass transport through realistic two-dimensional polycrystalline microstructures. Effects of microstructural parameters such as average grain size and grain boundary topology are examined, as are effects due to limits of the model