Numerical Analysis of the Effect of Diffusion and Creep Flow on Cavity Growth

In this paper, intergranular cavity growth in regimes, where both surface diffusion and deformation enhanced grain boundary diffusion are important, is studied. In order to continuously simulate the cavity shape evolution and cavity growth rate, a fully-coupled numerical method is proposed. Based on the fully-coupled numerical method, a gradual cavity shape change is predicted and this leads to an adverse effect on the cavity growth rates. As the portion of the cavity volume growth due to jacking and viscoplastic deformation in the total cavity volume growth increases, the initially spherical cavity evolves to V-shaped cavity. The numerical results are physically more realistic compared to results in the previous studies. The present numerical results suggest that the cavity shape evolution and cavity growth rate based on an assumed cavity shape, whether spherical or crack-like, cannot be used in this regime due to transitional coupled growth mechanisms.Copyright © 2007 by ASME