Papers by Keyword: Serial Sectioning

Abstract: The microstructure and pores of the consolidated powder materials are important to determine the final properties of the pieces produced. Therefore, the control of their volume fractions and morphologies represent actual technological challenges. Besides the quantification of the phase and pores volume fractions there are important features related with the morphological aspects and the phase boundary structure that reveals the mechanisms of properties improvements, which are crucial for development of materials obtained by powder metallurgy techniques. In this paper, stereological measurements of pores present in the material stainless steel (316L) are obtained by combining serial sectioning technique and optical microscopy (OM). Dilatometric experiments were carried out in order to simulate heat treatment for sintering the material. The 3D microstructures are obtained by images reconstruction using numerical pixels treatment and stereological results of the porosities are presented.

Abstract: Second phase particles in wrought aluminium alloys are crucial in controlling recrystallization and texture. In Al-Mn-Fe-Si (3xxx) alloys, the size, spacing, and distribution of both large constituent particles and small dispersoids are manipulated by heat treatment to obtain the required final microstructure and texture for operations such as can-making. Understanding how these particles evolve as a function of process conditions is thus critical to optimize alloy performance. In this study, a novel 3-dimensional technique involving serial sectioning in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been used to analyse the intermetallic particles found in an as-cast and homogenized Al-Mn-Fe-Si alloy. This has allowed an accurate determination of the size and shape of the constituent particles and dispersoids derived from a 3-dimensional dataset. It is demonstrated that a proper consideration of the 3-dimensional microstructure reveals important features that are not obvious from 2-dimensional sections alone.

Abstract: A focused ion beam (FIB) coupled with high resolution electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) has emerged as a useful tool for generating crystallographic information in reasonably large volumes of microstructure. In principle, data generation is reasonably straightforward whereby the FIB is used as a high precision serial sectioning device for generating consecutive milled surfaces suitable for mapping by EBSD. The successive EBSD maps generated by serial sectioning are combined using various post-processing methods to generate crystallographic volumes of the microstructure. This paper provides an overview of the use of 3D-EBSD in the study of various phenomena associated with thermomechanical processing of both crystalline and semi-crystalline alloys and includes investigations on the crystallographic nature of microbands, void formation at particles, phase redistribution during plastic forming, and nucleation of recrystallization within various regions of the deformation microstructure.

Abstract: The features present in 3D structure have geometric properties that fall into two broad categories: topological and metric. Metric properties are generally the more familiar; these include volume, surface area, line length and curvature. Equally or even more important in some applications are the topological properties of features. The two principal topological properties are number per unit volume and connectivity. In the present study, a change in morphology of pearlite and dual phase microstructures was examined from differential geometry and topology viewpoint. 3D images of eutectoid pearlite and dual phase steels were obtained by reconstructing serial sectioning images. Their metric and topological features were evaluated using The Euler Poincare formula and The Gauss-Bonnet Theorem. In addition, newly developed fully-automated serial sectioning 3D microscope “Genus_3D” will be also introduced.

Abstract: A focused ion beam (FIB) coupled with high resolution electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) has emerged as a useful tool for generating crystallographic information in reasonably large volumes of microstructure. In principle, data generation is reasonably straightforward whereby the FIB is used as a high precision serial sectioning device for generating consecutive milled surfaces suitable for mapping by EBSD. However, there are several challenges facing the technique including the need for accurate reconstruction of the EBSD slice data and the development of methods for representing the myriad microstructural features of interest including, for example, orientation gradients arising from plastic deformation through to the structure of grains and their interfaces in both single-phase and multi-phase materials. This paper provides an overview of the use of 3D-EBSD in the study of texture development in alloys during deformation and annealing and includes an update on current research on the crystallographic nature of microbands in some body centred and face centred cubic alloys and the nucleation and growth of grains in an extra low carbon steel.

Abstract: The present work is focused on complex evaluation of crack profiles, created around Vickers indents in two types of cutting tool ceramics, namely in the Al2O3 + ZrO2 ceramics and -Si3N4. The geometry of Vickers indents is investigated using two different evaluation methods. The first one is based on the application of serial sectioning from the indented specimen surface. The second method consists in the layer removing from plane perpendicular to the indented surface. These evaluation methods are convenient for determine the shape of created cracks and profiles of deformed area developed around the investigated indents. The mentioned methods contribute to the understanding of physical engineering principles resulting from the radial/median and lateral crack formation as the important characteristics influencing the reliable technical application of investigated ceramic materials.

Abstract: A new method for reconstructing a three-dimensional microstructure using the focused ion beam-orientation imaging microscopy (FIB-OIM) is introduced. The technique is important for the study of three-dimensional microstructures of materials because it can automatically align (register) a series of parallel sections with both topological information and orientation information at the sub-micrometer scale. Using voxel-based tessellation, a three-dimensional microstructure is reconstructed by registering each section. The application of the method to a cubic material is described and, based on the reconstruction, the grain shape and grain size distribution are characterized.

Abstract: Grain structures in polycrystalline materials are typically three dimensional (3D) structures, but by far the most characterizations of grain structures are done by microscopy and are thus limited to 2D. In the present work 3D grain structures in a well-annealed cylindrical aluminium (AA1050) sample is characterized and analyzed. The characterization is done by 2 methods i) by non-destructive 3-dimensional x-ray diffraction (3DXRD) ii) by serial sectioning and subsequent EBSP mapping of entire circular 2D sample sections; 50 sections are mapped In total 333 grains are reconstructed. It is found that the 3D grain morphologies can be quite complex in particular for the larger grains, the number of neighbours varies significantly and values above 20 are not unusual. When the results from the 2 methods are compared, it is found that the crystallographic agreement is very good and within experimental uncertainties. Slightly more significant differences are found when the reconstructed grain morphologies are compared. Reasons for this are discussed.

Abstract: A typical dual-beam platform combines a focused ion beam (FIB) microscope with a field emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEGSEM). Using FIB-FEGSEM, it is possible to sequentially mill away > ~ 50 nm sections of a material by FIB and characterize, at high resolution, the crystallographic features of each new surface by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The successive images can be combined to generate 3D crystallographic maps of the microstructure. A useful technique is described for FIB milling that allows the reliable reconstruction of 3D microstructures using EBSD. This serial sectioning technique was used to investigate the recrystallization behaviour of a particle-containing nickel alloy, which revealed a number of features of the recrystallizing grains that are not clearly evident in 2D EBSD micrographs such as clear evidence of particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) and twin formation and growth during PSN.

Abstract: The distribution of nucleation sites in 90% cold rolled aluminium (AA1050) annealed for 1h at 280°C has been determined by serial sectioning the sample and characterizing each section using the electron back scattering pattern (EBSP) method in the SEM. In total 1844 nuclei are identified. It was found that the nuclei are not randomly distributed but clustered preferentially along TD-RD planes in the sample. The results are presented and implications of clustered nucleation on recrystallization kinetics are discussed.