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- Volume 18 (1999)
- Number 1 - May 1999
- Image analysis of polycrystalline materials microstructure
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Image analysis of polycrystalline materials microstructure
Abstract
The main sources of structure images of different materials are light and scanning electron microscopes. The unsatisfactory quality and contrast for the automatic quantitative metallography needs often characterise these images. The most important causes of the poor quality of these images are uneven illumination of the whole specimen surface and preparation artifacts. Some new methods for these defects’ elimination from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were presented in this work. The accuracy of the final results of the quantitative structure evaluation depends not only on the quality of the acquired image as well as on procedures used for its binarisation and modification. Therefore problems of the detection of the structure elements in different materials were discussed. There are various ways to achieve it. In the scanning microscopy unconventional techniques of the image formation can be used. In some SEMs (for example Hitachi S-4200) it is possible to form digital images of the chemical elements distribution on the surface of the examined polished section (X-ray mapping). These images can be used after the appropriate logical and mathematical modifications to detect phases existed in analysed material. The examples of the application of these methods are presented.