Comparison of fracture surface and plane section analysis for ceramic grain size characterisation

A method has been developed to obtain quantitative information about grain size and shape from fractured surfaces of ceramic materials. One elaborated a routine to split intergranular and transgranular grains facets of ceramic fracture surfaces by digital image processing. A commercial ceramic (ALCOA A-16, Al2O3-1.5% of CrO) was used to test the proposed method. Microstructural measurements of grain shape and size taken from fracture surfaces have been compared through descriptive statistics of distributions, with the corresponding measurements from polished and etched surfaces. The agreement between results, with the expected bias on grain size values from fractures, obtained for both types of surfaces allowed to infer that this new technique can be used to extract the relevant microstructural information from fractured surfaces, thus minimising the time consuming steps of sample preparation. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.