Modeling and simulation of grain growth for FGH96 superalloy using a developed cellular automaton model

Through heat treatment experiments and numerical simulations, the effects of the heating temperature (1313–1423 K) and holding time (10–240 min) on the grain growth behavior of the extruded FGH96 alloy were investigated. A two-dimensional cellular automata (CA) model that considered the dissolution of the γ′ phase over time and the distribution characteristics with different sizes was developed to explore the grain growth behavior above the γ′ phase over-solution temperature (1423 K) and below the γ′ sub-solution temperature (1383 K), respectively. The results showed that the rate of grain growth of FGH96 alloy was obviously enhanced when the heating temperature exceeded 1363 K, which was mainly related to the dissolution of the γ′ phase, and the grain growth of FGH96 alloy mainly occurred during the initial stage of insulation. The grain growth model of the extruded FHG96 alloy could accurately predict the grain growth behavior, and the simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental results at over-solution temperature or sub-solution temperature. The effects of volume fraction and radius of γ′ phase on the grain growth behavior of FGH96 alloy were studied by simulating the grain growth behavior of FGH96 alloy under different sizes and volume fractions of γ′ phase. The results follow the Zener relation, and the coefficient n in the Zener relation was determined by fitting the simulation results.