Determination of grain boundary stiffness from molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

We report the quantitative prediction of grain boundary stiffness as a function of boundary inclination using molecular dynamics simulations in a series of σ5 [001] tilt grain boundaries. The grain boundary stiffness exhibits a large anisotropy, which is of the same order of magnitude as that of the grain boundary mobility. Surprisingly, these two anisotropies nearly cancel, leaving the reduced mobility (product of the stiffness and boundary mobility) nearly isotropic. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.