Three dimensional characterization of grain structures by EBSP and 3DXRD

Grain structures in polycrystalline materials are typically three dimensional (3D) structures, but by far the most characterizations of grain structures are done by microscopy and are thus limited to 2D. In the present work 3D grain structures in a well-annealed cylindrical aluminium (AA1050) sample is characterized and analyzed.

The characterization is done by 2 methods i) by non-destructive 3-dimensional x-ray diffraction (3DXRD) ii) by serial sectioning and subsequent EBSP mapping of entire circular 2D sample sections; 50 sections are mapped In total 333 grains are reconstructed. It is found that the 3D grain morphologies can be quite complex in particular for the larger grains, the number of neighbours varies significantly and values above 20 are not unusual.

When the results from the 2 methods are compared, it is found that the crystallographic agreement is very good and within experimental uncertainties. Slightly more significant differences are found when the reconstructed grain morphologies are compared. Reasons for this are discussed.