Phase Discrimination and Analysis of Defects by means of HR-EBSD and Direct Electron Detectors

Advancements in the development of new materials suitable for structural applications are strongly influenced by the understanding of the governing deformation mechanisms. While these deformation mechanisms are mostly understood in simpler crystal structures of the basic metals, their fundamental understanding in complex crystals, which are frequently present in commercial alloys is still lacking.
In the proposed research project, we expect to reveal which of the intermetallic phases are present in Mg-Al-Ca alloys, as well as visualising the influence of deformation structures on the diffraction patterns (EBSD) analysed in a scanning electron microscope. Especially the use of a direct electron detector at the UBC will enable us to reveal defect structures at low accelerating voltages and therefore low interaction volumes.
We expect, that we can distinguish secondary phases with very small volume fractions in the Mg-Al-Ca alloy as well that we are able to highlight how certain defects influence the EBSD patterns and thus deploy a novel and rapid method fur such an analysis.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ben Britton

Student:

Partner:

Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program: