  Grain growth in polycrystals is one of the principal mechanisms that take
place during heat treatment of metallic components. This work treats an aspect
of the anisotropic grain growth problem. By applying the first principles of
thermodynamics and mechanics, an expression for the velocity field of a
migrating grain boundary with an inclination dependent energy density is
expressed. This result is used to generate the first, to the authors'
knowledge, analytical solution (for both the form and kinetics) to an
anisotropic boundary configuration. This new benchmark is simulated in order to
explore the convergence properties of the proposed level set finite element
numerical model in an anisotropic setting. Convergence of the method being
determined, another configuration, using a more general grain boundary energy
density, is investigated in order to show the added value of the new
formulation.
