Microstructure Analysis of Al-6061: Description

Authors: Jordan Weaver, Ali Khosravani

Assumptions

Salient features

  • Grain size, shape, and distribution (regions of uniform crystal orientation)
  • Texture (a high degree of probability of specific crystal orientations over random)
  • Constituent particle size, shape, distribution, and spacing (never were dissolved)
  • Precipitate size, distribution, and spacing (dissolved and precipitate out of the matrix)

Data Collection

  • EBSD to measure grain size and texture
  • Optical and SEM-BSE for constituent particles
  • SEM-BSE and TEM for precipitates

Schematic of grains, particles, and precipitates

Example Al-6061 Grains

Example EBSD Grain Map of Al-6061. Regions of uniform color are individual grains. See this post for how OIM Data Analysis defines grains and other measurements.

Example Al-6061 BSE

Example of SEM-BSE Image of Al-6061 with labeled salient features

Next steps include…

  • OIM Data Analysis
  • Image Segmentation
  • Feature quantification