The method of quantitative automatic metallographic analysis

Abstract

A brief analysis of the existing softwares for computer processing of microstructure photographs is presented. The descriptions of the the software package developed by the author are demonstrated. This software product is intended for quantitative metallographic analysis of digital photographs of the microstructure of materials. It allows calculating the volume fraction and the average size of particles of the structure by several hundred secants (depending on the photographs resolution) in one vision field. Besides, a special module is built in the software allowing assessing the degree of deviation of the shape of different particles and impurities from the spherical one. The article presents the main algorithms, used during the creation of the software product, and formulae according to which the software calculates the parameters of the microstructure. It is shown that the reliability of calculations depends on the quality of preparation of the microstructure.