Morphological Filtering and Granulometric Analysis on Scanning Electron Micrographs: Applications in Materials Science

For many applications, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images reflect the granular texture of analysed objects. So it is important to characterise the morphology of this texture and also to filter these images. Because the size of the texture is the main criterion to be studied, we have focused our paper on granulometric analysis. We present basic parameters, morphological filtering and granulometry for Rn•R functions and their properties with local knowledge and anamorphosis. Some applications in the domain of materials science illustrate these methods and present their suitable possibilities

Automatic morphological sieving: comparison between different methods, application to DNA ploidy measurements

The aim of the present study is to propose alternative automatic methods to time consuming interactive sorting of elements for DNA ploidy measurements. One archival brain tumour and two archival breast carcinoma were studied, corresponding to 7120 elements (3764 nuclei, 3356 debris and aggregates). Three automatic classification methods were tested to eliminate debris and aggregates from DNA ploidy measurements (mathematical morphology (MM), multiparametric analysis (MA) and neural network (NN)). Performances were evaluated by reference to interactive sorting. The results obtained for the three methods concerning the percentage of debris and aggregates automatically removed reach 63, 75 and 85% for MM, MA and NN methods, respectively, with false positive rates of 6, 21 and 25%. In-* Corresponding author. formation about DNA ploidy abnormalities were globally preserved after automatic elimination of debris and aggregates by MM and MA methods as opposed to NN method, showing that automatic classification methods can offer alternatives to tedious interactive elimination of debris and aggregates, for DNA ploidy measurements of archival tumours

Relation between fibre distribution and post-cracking behaviour in steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete panels

In this research, the influence of the fibre distribution and orientation on the post-cracking behaviour of steel fibre 14 reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) panels was studied. To perform this evaluation, SFRSCC panels 15 were cast from their centre point. For each SFRSCC panel, cylindrical specimens were extracted and notched either 16 parallel or perpendicular to the concrete flow direction, in order to evaluate the influence of fibre dispersion and 17 orientation on the tensile performance. The post-cracking behaviour was assessed by both splitting tensile tests and 18 uniaxial tensile tests. To assess the fibre density and orientation through the panels, an image analysis technique was 19 employed across cut planes on each tested specimen. It is found that the splitting tensile test overestimates the post20 cracking parameters. Specimens with notched plane parallel to the concrete flow direction show considerable higher 21 post-cracking strength than specimens with notched plane perpendicular to the flow direction.The studies reported in this paper are part of the research project LEGOUSE (QREN, project no 5387). This project is co-supported by FEDER through COMPETE programme ("Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade"). The materials were supplied by Radmix and Maccaferri (fibres), SECIL (cement), SIKA and BASF (superplasticizers), Omya Comital (limestone filler), and Pegop (Fly ash)

Morphological Study during a Ceramic Process

Image analysis is a very well adapted tool to follow an industrial process where the properties of final products depend on material morphology. In this paper, the case of morphological study during the process of baryum titanate ceramic capacitors is presented. Three main stages of this process are studied by three different morphological methods. Many relationships between morphological and physical properties of dielectric material have been established.L'analyse d'images est un outil très bien adapté pour suivre un procédé de fabrication industriel dans lequel les propriétés du produit final dépendent de la morphologie du matériau. Dans cet article, on présente l'étude et le suivi morphologique durant la fabrication de condensateurs cérami ques à base de titanate de barium. Les trois étapes principales du procédé sont étudiées par trois méthodes morphologiques différentes. Un certain nombre de relations entre la morphologie et les propriétés physiques du matériau diélectrique a été établie

Morphological Segmentation of Cutting Tools

The influence of microstructural features of cutting tools in tungsten carbide-cobalt cermets (WC-Co) on their mechanical behaviour is well established. The study of these features needs to segment WC grains in the cobalt matrix. This segmentation had been manually performed for a long time, but the development of new image processing tools allow now to automatically achieve a good segmentation. A method of WC-Co segmentation is introduced and the results obtained on this one are compared to the results obtained on a manual segmentation in order to validate the segmentation algorithm.L'influence de la microstructure des outils de coupe sur leurs propriétés mécaniques est maintenant bien établie. L'étude des caractéristiques de la microstructure nécessite la segmentation des grains de carbure de tungstène dans la phase cobalt. Longtemps, cette segmentation a été effectuée manuellement. Depuis quelques années, le développement des outils de traitement d'image a permis la segmentation automatique d'images de tels matériaux. Une méthode de segmentation de cermets carbure de tungstène-cobalt (WC-Co) est présentée et les résultats obtenus par celle-ci sont comparés à des résultats obtenus par segmentation manuelle afin de valider la méthode

Solidification of polycrystalline silicon ingots : simulation and characterization of the microstructure

Polycrystalline silicon prepared by directional solidification exhibits a very heterogeneous morphology. Consequently the global methods of quantitative image analysis are not applicable. On the contrary, the P(l) function gives access to the size distribution in number F(l) and in weight G(l). For a given stage of the growth, the effect of new grains was simulated and was seen to modify markedly the slope of the size distributions at the origin.La morphologie du silicium polycristallin obtenu par solidification dirigée est très hétérogène et ne peut pas être analysée par les méthodes globales d'analyse quantitative d'images. Par contre il est possible d'utiliser la fonction P(l) qui donne accès aux distributions de tailles en nombre, F(l), et en mesure, G(l). Les résultats obtenus sur une simulation d'apparition de nouveaux grains à un stade donné de la croissance, ont permis de montrer que la pente à l'origine de la distribution en nombre, F (l), est très sensible à une germination secondaire

Etude morphologique des poudres. Applications au titanate de baryum et à l'alumine

In this paper, we specially looked to the study of shape of particles and aggregates of BaTiO$_3$ and AI$_2$O$_3$ powders with very different physico-chemical features in order to characterize morphologically pulverulent media. Although the analysis of the shape may be carried out on two different scales, providing access either to the silhouette or to the roughness of particles or aggregates, only the investigation of the silhouette has been approached as a first step. For that purpose a number of shape factors was selected and correlations were looked for by statistical analysis.Dans cet article, nous nous sommes penchés plus particulièrement sur l'étude de la forme de particules et d'agrégats de poudres BaTiO$_3$ et AI$_2$O$_3$, présentant des caractéristiques physico-chimiques très différentes, dans le but de caractériser morphologiquement des milieux pulvérulents. Bien que l'analyse de la forme puisse s'effectuer à deux échelles différentes permettant d'accéder, soit à la silhouette, soit à la rugosité des particules ou des agrégats, nous n'avons abordé ici, dans un premier temps, que l'étude de la silhouette. Nous avons pour cela sélectionné un certain nombre d'indices de forme et recherché des corrélations par analyse statistique