Importance of Grain Growth
Most materials exhibit the Hall–Petch effect at room-temperature and so display a higher yield stress when the grain size is reduced. At high temperatures the opposite is true since the open, disordered nature of grain boundaries means that vacancies can diffuse more rapidly down boundaries leading to more rapid Coble creep. Since boundaries are regions of high energy they make excellent sites for the nucleation of precipitates and other second-phases e.g. Mg–Si–Cu phases in some aluminium alloys or martensite platlets in steel. Depending on the second phase in question this may have positive or negative effects.
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