Modeling grain growth and related phenomena with vertex dynamics

Grain growth is the simplest phenomena related to the evolution of a population of grains in crystalline materials. Some typical results obtained with vertex dynamics, a deterministic technique applied to the simulation of grain growth in polycrystalline materials, mostly in two dimensions (2D), are presented: (i) the dynamics of a population of grains interacting with various distributions of pinning obstacles; (ii) bulging as a possible recrystallization mechanism; and (iii) the influence of a confined geometry on grain growth as those found in electronic devices. Finally recent developments in 3D are presented.