Automatically quantifying dendrite arm spacing in hypoeutectic aluminum casting, comprises acquiring image by computer-based system, estimating dendrite cell size and aspect ratio of dendrite cell, and converting into dendrite arm spacing

摘要

Automatically quantifying dendrite arm spacing in a hypoeutectic aluminum casting, comprises: acquiring an image corresponding to a location of interest in the casting by using a computer-based system; estimating a dendrite cell size within the location of interest using the computer-based system; using the computer-based system to estimate a volume fraction of eutectic phases; estimating an aspect ratio of at least one dendrite cell; and converting the estimated dendrite cell size volume fraction and aspect ratio into a quantified dendrite arm spacing using the computer-based system. Automatically quantifying dendrite arm spacing in a hypoeutectic aluminum casting, comprises: acquiring an image corresponding to a location of interest in the casting by using a computer-based system; estimating a dendrite cell size within the location of interest using the computer-based system by overlaying the image with a gridded pattern to quantify the number of intersections between at least one cell boundary from the image and at least one portion of the gridded pattern; using the computer-based system to estimate a volume fraction of eutectic phases in the location of interest; estimating an aspect ratio of at least one dendrite cell within the location of interest by using the computer-based system; and converting the estimated dendrite cell size volume fraction and aspect ratio into a quantified dendrite arm spacing using the computer-based system. Independent claims are also included for: (1) automatically quantifying dendrite arm spacing in a hypoeutectic aluminum casting, comprising selecting a cast material to be analyzed, using an image analyzer to automatically determine dendrite cell size information corresponding to a location of interest in the selected cast material, and converting the dendrite cell size information to dendrite arm spacing information; (2) using an image analyzer to automatically determine dendrite cell size information comprises acquiring an image corresponding to location of interest, and estimating dendrite cell size within the location of interest by overlaying the image with a gridded pattern to quantify the number of intersections; and (3) an article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in it for automatically quantifying dendrite arm spacing for a hypoeutectic aluminum cast material, in which computer readable program code in the article of manufacture comprises computer readable program code portion for causing the computer to accept data pertaining to digital information of a location of interest within a sample of cast material, computer readable program code portion for causing the computer to process digital information into dendrite cell size information, computer readable program code portion for causing computer to convert dendrite cell size information into a corresponding dendrite arm spacing through an algorithm based on a volume fraction of eutectic phases in location of interest and an aspect ratio of at least one dendrite cell within location of interest, and computer readable program code portion for causing the computer to produce an output that corresponds to dendrite arm spacing.