An entropy based theory of the grain boundary character distribution (Q541548)

In this paper an entropy based theory to explain the behavior and evolution of the grain boundary character distribution (GBCD) in cellular networks is presented. The main idea is to introduce a simplified coarsening model that is driven by the boundary conditions and reflects the dissipation relation of the grain growth. It resembles an ensemble of inertia-free spring mash-dashpots. For this simple network the authors study how entropic or diffusive behavior at the large emerges from a dissipation relation at the scale of local evolution. The corner stone is the implementation of the iterative scheme for the Fokker-Plank equation in terms of the system free energy and a Kantorovich-Rubinstein-Wasserstein metric [\textit{R. Jordan}, \textit{D. Kinderlehrer} and \textit{F. Otto}, ``The variational formulation of the Fokker-Planck equation'', SIAM J. Math. Anal. 29, No. 1, 1--17 (1998; Zbl 0915.35120)]. The network level non equilibrium nature of the iterative scheme leaves free a temperature-like parameter and the entropy method is exploited to identify uniquely this parameter and to compare it with the empirical GBDC. The results of a number of numerical experiments are presented to show that the theory predicts the results of large scale two-dimensional simulations. Energy densities consisting of quadratic and quartic trigonometric polynomials are analyzed.