Estimating the Effective Elastic Parameters of Nodular Cast Iron from Micro-Tomographic Imaging and Multiscale Finite Elements: Comparison between Numerical and Experimental Results

Herein, we describe in detail a methodology to estimate the effective elastic parameters of nodular cast iron, using micro-tomography in conjunction with multiscale finite elements. We discuss the adjustment of the image acquisition parameters, address the issue of the representative-volume choice, and present a brief discussion on image segmentation. In addition, the finite-element computational implementation developed to estimate the effective elastic parameters from segmented microstructural images is described, indicating the corresponding computational costs. We applied the proposed methodology to a nodular cast iron, and estimated the graphite elastic parameters through a comparison between the numerical and experimental results.