CAD-based reconstruction of 3D polycrystalline alloy microstructures from FIB generated serial sections

This paper develops a robust CAD-based methodology for simulating 3D microstructures of polycrystalline metals using crystallographic input data on sections created by a focused ion beam (FIB)–scanning electron microscopy (SEM) system. The method is able to construct consistent polycrystalline microstructures with control on the resolution necessary for meaningful computational analysis in microstructureproperty estimation. The microstructure simulation methodology is based on a hierarchical geometrical representation using primitives used in CAD modeling. It involves steps of data cleanup, interface point identification, polynomial and NURBS function-based parametric surface segments construction, generalized cell decomposition, geometric defeaturing, and gap and overlap removal. The implementation of the entire procedure described above is performed with the aid of user-programming facilities of a commercial CAD package Unigraphics NX3. The microstructure simulation algorithm is validated using various error criteria and measures for an extracted microstructure of a nickel superalloy. c © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.