GRAIN GROWTH IN POLAR ICE: SIMULATION AND APPLICATION

CARLOS LEONARDO DI PRINZIO; DRUETTA, ESTEBAN; NASELLO, OLGA BEATRIZ

malargue

Congreso; reunión anual de la Asociación Física Argentina; 2010

Asociación Fisica Argentina

The size and shape of grains present in firn ice cores, is completely controlled by grain growth. Grain growth is affected by second phase particles like bubbles, volcanic traces and dust, and by the grain boundary energy and mobility anisotropy. At the present the quantitative effects of each one of these variables are not completely understood .Monte Carlo (MC) methods is proving to be a powerful tool particularly to study grain boundary migration. In this work, a MC algorithm in three dimensions (3D) polycrystalline samples is implemented to study the effect of immobile and mobile particles on the grain growth. The 3D samples were simulated using a 200x200x200 cubic sites lattices and the average grain sizes and their distribution in each Monte Carlo step (MCS) were stored. Initial condition similar to those observed in firn ice cores was used and the relative influence of the particle drag on the firm ice grain growth is established.