2D FOURIER-ANALYSIS AND ITS APPLICATION TO STUDY OF SCALING PROPERTIES AND FRACTAL DIMENSIONS OF EPSILON-MARTENSITE DISTRIBUTION IN GAMMA-MATRIX OF FE-MN-SI ALLOY

2D Fourier analysis is proposed to obtain quantitative information on the structural amplitudes m reciprocal space for different heterophase systems. An original technique for profound computer processing of op tical images transformed into an appropriate digital form is developed . Correlation Fourier analysis is applied to study a spatial distribut ion of gamma-->epsilon martensitic transformation product in Fe-Mn-Si shape memory alloy. An evident spatial self-similarity and scaling beh avior is observed, indicating a fractal-like distribution of epsilon-p hase in gamma-matrix. The structural factor versus wave number depende nce shows three scaling invariant regions with different scaling dimen sions and crossover regions between them. A simple fractal model is pr oposed to interpret experimental results.