Coarsening due to Capillary Forces

In Chapter 14 we focused on capillarity-driven processes that primarily alter the shape of a body. Two types of changes were considered those driven by reduction of surface area, and those driven by altering the inclination of surfaces. In this chapter, changes in the length scales that characterize the microstructure are treated. 

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Coalescence-induced coarsening takes place when grains are pulled together due to the capillary force produced by the liquid phase [69, 91]. Coalescence usually experiences three steps (i) contact formation between the grains, (ii) neck growth, and (iii) migration of the grain boundary, as shown schematically in Fig. 5.40 [73]. 

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