Modeling the Role of the Grain Structure in the Oxidation of Polycrystals

The diffusion properties of polycrystalline materials depend on their grain shape and size, which determine the spatial distribution of grain boundaries. These morphological characteristics are of interest when evaluating an alloy ability to form a protective oxide scale by selective oxidation at high temperature. The composition changes induced by selective oxidation in 2D polycrystals were studied by finite element simulations. We examined the effect of the grain boundary orientation in lamellar polycrystals, and the effects of the grain size distribution in random equiaxed polycrystals. Fine-grained polycrystals were found to behave as uniform media. The effective diffusivity of fine lamellar polycrystals depends on the grain boundary orientation and is bounded by the upper and lower composite diffusivities, while the effective diffusivity of fine equiaxed polycrystals can be estimated by a modified Hart equation. The behavior of coarser equiaxed polycrystal was shown to vary according to the local grain size: the concentration at the alloy-scale interface is fully determined by the local grain size in larger grains, while it is affected by the surrounding grains in finer grains. Increasing the grain size dispersion led to a more scattered response and shifted the minimum interface concentrations toward lower values, which is expected to have a detrimental effect on the oxidation resistance.