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A novel procedure to solve the diffusion problem on a cavitated grain
boundary has been developed. Cavities are assumed to maintain their quasiequilibrium
form. The solution relies on a representation of the local normal stress
by holomorphic complex functions on the grain boundary plane. The cavity
volume growth rates are calculated and the solution is used to simulate the
cavitation process, taking into account cavity nucleation, growth, sintering and
coalescence. The results are compared with the classical homogeneous solution,
which assumes a uniform cavity size and spacing. It is found that the classical
solution strongly overestimates the kinetics of the porosity evolution.