Combined EBSD, SEM and EDS for detecting minor phases on austenitic stainless steels

Abstract

Phases in AISI 347 austenitic stainless steel under heat treatments simulating post welding and aging effects are characterized. The study is performed with a scanning electron microscope by using electron backscattered diffraction, secondary and backscattered images and X-ray maps. The potential of each signal is analyzed for the identification and quantification of austenite, ferrite, carbides, silicates, sulfides, and sigma phases. Since the sigma phase and the chromium carbide are difficult to identify by conventional analysis, the method of Mean Shift Clustering has been implemented to face this issue. The results evidence that this approach complements the ease and availability characterizing EDS analysis and the capability of EBSD for crystallographic phase identification.