Effect of low-angle grain boundaries on morphology and variant selection of grain boundary allotriomorphs and Widmanstätten side-plates

Morphology and variant selection (VS) of grain boundary (GB) allotriomorphs and Widmanstätten side-plates of α phase in an α/β titanium alloy, Ti-6Al-4V (wt%), are investigated using a three-dimensional phase field model. The structures of low-angle GBs (misorientation θ_m ≤ 10°) are modeled as discrete dislocation networks using Frank-Bilby theory. It is shown that α allotriomorphs and side-plates compete with each other during precipitation and the final morphology and selected α variants exhibit a strong correlation with the GB dislocation structures. While the side-plate morphology is more preferred by a symmetrical tilt GB with θ_m ∼ 10°, it can also be induced by a pure twist GB with θ_m ≤ 5°. Quantitative analysis indicates that precipitate morphology and VS are determined by the interplay among (i) elastic interaction between a nucleating α precipitate and the GB dislocation networks, (ii) growth anisotropy determined by the relative inclination of the habit plane with respect to the GB dislocations, (iii) density of nucleation sites for the same variant and coalescence during growth, and (iv) spatial confinement from simultaneously nucleated neighboring α variants of dissimilar types.