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IMAGE ANALYSIS OF PEARLITE SPHEROIDIZATION BASED ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF CEMENTITE PARTICLES
June 2010
NICOLAS NUTAL, CEDRIC J GOMMES, SILVIA BLACHER, PHILIPPE POUTEAU, JEAN-PAUL
PIRARD, FRÉDÉRIC BOSCHINI, KARL TRAINA AND RUDI CLOOTS
Pearlite spheroidization is a metallurgical process in steels by which cementite lamellae decompose into
spheroids, a process accompanied by a decrease of the Vickers hardness of the samples. In this study,
different methods are compared for measuring cementite particles length and width from scanning electron
micrographs. Based on a test-image, a so-called ribbon-like method is proposed for measuring particles
length and width, and for discriminating lamellae from spheroids. Differently heat-treated samples are
prepared and characterized. The results of analysis are used to rationalize the evolution of the microstructure
of the samples. Compared to the classical DeHoff shape factor, it is shown that new insight into the
spheroidization process is gained by analyzing the lamellar length and width distributions.
Cementite Spheroidization, Lamellar Structures, Shape Descriptors, Vickers Hardness
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