A procedure for indirect and automatic measurement of prior austenite grain size in bainite/martensite microstructures

摘要

An alternative procedure for indirect and automatic measurement of the prior austenite grain\udsize (PAGS) in bainite/martensite is proposed in this work. It consists in the determination of an\udeffective grain size (EGS) by means of statistical post-processing of electron backscatter diffraction\ud(EBSD) data. The algorithm developed for that purpose, which is available on-line, has been applied\udto simulated EBSD maps as well as to both a nanocrystalline bainitic steel and a commercial hot-rolled\udair-cooled steel with a granular bainitic microstructure. The new proposed method has been proven to\udbe robust and results are in good agreement with conventional PAGS measurements. The added value\udof the procedure comes from its simplicity, as no parent reconstruction is involved during the process,\udand its suitability for low-magnification EBSD maps, thus allowing a large step-size and coverage of a\udsubstantially broader area of the sample than the previous methods reported.