Analyzing Three Dimensional Structures of Polycrystals

Gregory Rohrer, Materials Science & Engineering

Certain properties of polycrystals, for example corrosion resistance, are influenced by the mesoscale structure of the grain boundary network.  In the present context, "mesoscale" refers to structural features that are larger than the atomic scale, but relatively small in comparison to the material's external boundaries.  For a single phase polycrystal, the two main characteristics of the mesoscale structure are the relative areas of the different types of grain boundaries and the way that they are connected.  The vast majority of prior work characterizing polycrystals has focused on measuring the relative areas of the different types of grain boundaries.  Fewer studies have attempted to correlate the connectivity of grain boundaries with the properties, and that is the basis for this project.  We will analyze three dimensional microstructural data to determine the topological characteristics of grain boundaries.