Parent microstrcutre optimisation in steels and alloys using EBSD

In many structural and high-performance materials, such as steels and Zr / Ti alloys, the microstructure formed during high temperature manufacturing or processing methodologies is based on a high-T parent phase. Upon cooling, phase transformations occur, with multiple daughter grain orientations forming from a single parent grain. Characterising the parent microstructure is important for understanding the microstructural evolution and allows researchers to tailor the processing, producing final microstructures with the desired physical properties.

Reconstructing parent microstructures is challenging: conventional approaches involved etching and optical microscopy but this would only reveal information about the parent grain size. Recent developments have now made parent microstructure reconstruction possible using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) data, enabling not only a reconstruction of the parent grain size and shape, but also of the texture, deformation and boundary characteristics.

In this webinar we will introduce a new feature in our AZtecCrystal EBSD data processing software that enables fast and effective parent grain reconstruction for a wide range of materials. Our technique is based on published work by Huang et al. (Materialia, 9, 2020) and we will be joined by one of the developers of that technique, Dr Hung-Wei (Homer) Yen, to talk about the application of parent grain reconstruction in the steel industry.

You will learn how:

• The need for parent microstructure reconstruction in order to understand better high-T materials processing
• Details about the fast and versatile parent grain reconstruction approach implemented in AZtecCrystal
• Some examples applications in the steel and additive manufacturing industries