QUANTITATIVE

METALLOGRAPHY
 Perhitungan Metalografi Kuantitatif

• Ukuran besar butir

• Persentase fasa dan endapan
• Distribusi fasa dan endapan
• Teknik Pengukuran Khusus
– Microhardness
– Ketebalan lapisan
– Kekasaran permukaan
 Introduction
• Many materials investigations are concern
with the relationship between the bulk
properties of materials and their
microstructures.
• In the past qualitative relationship have
often been reported but as metallurgy
become transformed from an art to
science quantitative relationship become
necessary.
 Introduction
• For this reason it is desirable to be able to
describe quantitatively the microstructure of
material as observed by metallographic
technique.
• The two most common cases to which
quantitative metallography can be applied are:
– The determination of grain size and shape and the
grain size distribution in a single phase polycrystalline
structure
– The size, shape, volume fraction of component phase
in multi-phase structure
 Grain Size in a Single Phase Structure

• The most common method of performing

quantitative grain size measurements consists of
taking random sections through bulk specimens
and preparing the surfaces of the sections for
optical microscopy by standard metallographic
techniques.
• The methods of revealing grain structure on a
polished section include:
– Chemical etching
– Polarized light microscopy
– Several miscellaneous techniques
 Chemical Etching
• this results in either the preferential attack
of grain boundaries by the etching solution
(grain boundary grooving) or orientation-
sensitive surface roughening.
• In the former case light impinging on grain
boundaries is reflected outside the
objective aperture of the microscope while
in the latter case the amount of light
reflected outside the aperture varies from
grain to grain.
 Polarized Light Microscopy
• if an anisotropic material is examined in
the as-polished condition between crossed
polars the intensity of transmitted light is a
function of the crystallographic orientation
of the surface.
• Thus contrast is obtained between regions
of different orientation, i.e. grains.
 Several miscellaneous techniques

• Several miscellaneous techniques can be

used which rely on the deposition of a
surface layer, the thickness or roughness
of which is a function of orientation.
• These techniques include heat-tinting,
stain-etching in chemical solution and
anodizing.
• Grain size can be reported in one of
several ways:
– Mean distance between grain boundaries
intersected by random lines across the
section.
– Number of grains per unit area of section.
– Average area per grain on the section.
Direct Measurement Techniques
• Linier intercept methods – in this approach
random line are drawn across
photomicrograph of the grain structure and
the number of grain boundaries intersect
for a given random line is counted.
• This parameter is denoted nL and
represents the inverse of the mean
intersected grain width.
Direct Measurement Techniques
• The average number of grain per unit area
is conveniently measuredsimply by
counting the number of grains on a given
area of micrograph
• This parameter, nA, is the inverse of the
mean intersected grain area.
• In both the above techniques it is obviously
important to know the magnification
of the micrograph accurately.
Direct Measurement Techniques
• The mean intersected grain area
can be measured directly by means
of a planimeter.
• If it is assumed that all the grains are the same size and
take the shape of truncated octahedra
(tetrakaidecahedra)
the following
relationships are valid:

nV = 0.422nL3 = 0.677nA3/2

• Where nv = number of grain per unit volume

Direct Measurement Techniques
• The grain diameter d is defined as the diameter of a circle
having the same area as the maximum area obtaining by
sectioning tetrakaidecahedron and is given by:
1.78 1.53
d 
nL nA
The ratio of grain interfacial area S to grain volume V is
given by : S
 2nL
V
The parameters d and S/V are used frequently in
investigations of mechanical properties; for example it
has been found that the yield strength of steel is a
function of the inverse square root of d.
 Grain Size in Multi-Phase Structure

• The simplest technique for determining the

relative phase fractions in a microstructure
consisting a several phases is tu cut up a
photomicrograph along phase boundaries
and weigh the amounts of photographic
paper corresponding to each phase.
• This gives the area fraction of each phase.
• Alternatively a planimeter can be
employed to give the same parameter.
 Grain Size in Multi-Phase Structure

• A random line technique can also be used on

two phase structure. In this case the fractions of
a length of random line passing across each
phase are measured
• A point counting method can also be employed.
A square grid of lines is superimposed on a
micrograph of the structure and the interactions
of grid lines are taken as points. The number of
points falling in each phase is then counted.
 Grain Size in Multi-Phase Structure

• The volume fraction of a phase in multiphase

structure can be easily determined from th
above techniques since :

N L A V
   = volume fraction 
N L A V
Where :
N = number of point falling in a phase
N = total number of point counted
L = length of random line across a phase
L = total length of random line
 Contoh
Obtain a
representative area
and produce a
micrograph showing
the overall structure.
A second, higher
resolution picture
might be required to
show detail.

The grain size and volume fraction of ferrite/pearlite in the

annealed/normalised steels must be measured. Grain size is measured
using a linear intercept technique, the volume fraction of each of the
microconstituents is measured using point counting.
 Point Counting
• In the point counting method a square grid is
superimposed over the sample microstructure.
• The grid spacing should be similar in size, or
smaller than the features being measured.
• The number of points to be counted depends on
both the volume fraction of the phase and the
desired level of precision in the result.
• On a rectangular grid consisting of 10x10 or 100
points (the total number of points is PT), the
number of grid intersections, points, intersecting
the phase of interest is counted, Pa.
Point Counting
The volume fraction of the
phase is then

if this is repeated for n fields

of view then
 Point Counting
clearly for each field of view the value of fa will vary so there will be an error in fa

enables the standard error to be calculated. However, this appraoch does not
allow the calculation of the number of points required to get a given error, for
that we use

where s is the error, fa, the volume fraction of phase a and N, the total
number of points. You should aim for an error of ±1%
Grain Size - Linear Intercept
A straight line is drawn across the sample and its length is noted - to do this
you will need to use the stage micrometer to determine the real length of
the line, l.
 Linear Intercept
Alternatively, a circle may be drawn with a known diameter and hence
circumference (l). Again the interecpts of all the grain boundaries with the
circle are counted (n) and the grain size determined as above.
 Linear Intercept
The number of grain boundary intercepts is then counted, n, and the grain
size, d, determined

The error in the measurement is

where sd is the standard deviation of all of the measurements of d that were

made and N is the number of grains measured. It follows from the above
equation that for a given error, s, the number of grains to be measured can
be estimated. Obviously the process is iterative since sd changes as the
number of measurments is increased