Three-Dimensional Characterization of Microstructure by Electron Back-Scatter Diffraction
Abstract
We review briefly the motivation for the characterization of materials in three dimensions. Most materials of practical value are polycrystalline, and the arrangement of the crystals or grains in space is usually sufficiently complicated that plane sections do not suffice to describe microstructure quantitatively. Furthermore, most properties, even in materials with cubic crystal symmetry, are anisotropic, which means that even small deviations from uniform (random) texture lead to anisotropic behavior of the polycrystal. Elastic response is mildly anisotropic in most cases, and the plastic response of a material can be strongly anisotropic. A further complication is that many processing routes lead to heterogeneous microstructures, so it is often necessary to characterize the gradients in microstructure and accept that there is not a single representative microstructure. Although it is an accepted axiom of materials science that properties depend on microstructure, it is worth pointing out the great variety of important problems that are known to be sensitive to microstructure, such as surface roughening, intergranular corrosion, fatigue crack initiation and initiation, fracture toughness, hot ductility dip cracking, electromigration, and hillock formation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 28, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA506896
Entities
People
- Anthony D Rollett
- Gregory S Rohrer
- R. Campman
- S.-b. Lee
Organizations
- Carnegie Mellon University