AFRL Additive Manufacturing Modeling Series: Challenge 4, 3D Reconstruction of an IN625 High-Energy Diffraction Microscopy Sample Using Multi-modal Serial Sectioning

High-energy diffraction microscopy (HEDM) in-situ mechanical testing experiments offer unique insight into the evolving deformation state within polycrystalline materials. These experiments rely on a sophisticated analysis of the diffraction data to instantiate a 3D reconstruction of grains and other microstructural features associated with the test volume. For microstructures of engineering alloys that are highly twinned and contain numerous features around the estimated spatial resolution of HEDM reconstructions, the accuracy of the reconstructed microstructure is not known. In this study, we address this uncertainty by characterizing the same HEDM sample volume using destructive serial sectioning (SS) that has higher spatial resolution. The SS experiment was performed on an Inconel 625 alloy sample that had undergone HEDM in-situ mechanical testing to a small amount of plastic strain (~ 0.7%), which was part of the Air Force Research Laboratory Additive Manufacturing (AM) Modeling Series. A custom-built automated multi-modal SS system was used to characterize the entire test volume, with a spatial resolution of approximately 1 µm. Epi-illumination optical microscopy images, backscattered electron images, and electron backscattered diffraction maps were collected on every section. All three data modes were utilized and custom data fusion protocols were developed for 3D reconstruction of the test volume. The grain data were homogenized and downsampled to 2 µm as input for Challenge 4 of the AM Modeling Series, which is available at the Materials Data Facility repository.