Monte Carlo simulation for prediction of grain growth kinetics and limiting grain size of Fe–Si-containing AA8011 alloy during the annealing

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation was employed to predict microstructural evolution and kinetics of grain growth during the annealing of AA8011 aluminum alloy after one pass of rolling with a 43% reduction in cross-section. Rolled sheets of AA8011 alloy were annealed at the temperature range of 400-600 for various times. The kinetics of grain growth in the mentioned alloy is found to depend on the presence of secondary phases. By increasing the temperature and annealing time, fraction of secondary phases declined due to the dissolution which drastically affected the grain size by leading to explosive grain growth. The grain growth exponent of the samples was calculated by MC simulation and using an analytical model and the results were compared. The Monte Carlo model predicted the results more accurately with the considered criteria. Considering that Monte Carlo simulation prediction is based on virtual simulation time, time conversion plays an important role in determining grain growth. For this purpose, the curve fitting method was used to validate the obtained results and also extract the parameters of diffusion coefficient and grain boundary activation energy of the used alloy.