Application of three-dimensional digital image processing for reconstruction of microstructural volume from serial sections

Three-dimensional digital image processing is useful for reconstruction of microstructural volume from a stack of serial sections. Application of this technique is demonstrated via reconstruction of a volume segment of the li quid-phase sintered microstructure of a tungsten heavy alloy processed in t he microgravity environment of NASAs' space shuttle, Columbia. Ninety seria l sections (approximately one micrometer apart) were used for reconstructio n of the three-dimensional microstructure. The three-dimensional microstruc tural reconstruction clearly revealed that the tungsten grains are almost c ompletely connected in three-dimensional space. Both the matrix and the gra ins are topologically co-continuous, although the alloy was liquid-phase si ntered in microgravity. Therefore, absence of gravity did not produced a mi crostructure consisting of discrete isolated W grains uniformly dispersed i n the liquid Ni-Fe alloy matrix at the sintering temperature. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 2000. All rights reserved.