Generation of statistically representative synthetic three-dimensional microstructures

This study provides a general framework for the creation of three-dimensional microstructures for anisotropic two-phase materials with complex morphologies. The ability to create synthetic microstructures that are statistically representative of real materials is dependent on the ability of the generation algorithm to meet the assigned statistics. Hence, the fidelity of the synthetic microstructure depends on the efficiency of the generation process. The generated microstructures were statistically evaluated with respect to the target distribution for grain size, shape, orientation and phase volume fraction. This serves a dual purpose of validation of the packing algorithm and quantification of the 3D microstructures. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.