Results from in-situ, real-time SEM observations of grain growth in polycrystalline metal

The development of the converter plate detector has allowed the generation of real-time, in-situ image sequences of evolving microstructures in model and industrial polycrystalline metals. The principal metals investigated were steel, aluminium and gold. The raw video results allow a number of qualitative statements to be made about grain growth behaviour in these systems and some simplistic quantitative statements. However, the sheer volume and variety of data available in the time-stream of micrographs presents its own problems in identifying and extracting the information most useful for rigorous characterisation of the behaviour of a dynamically evolving microstructure. We present and discuss our approach to the analysis of this data and results of that analysis.