IMAGE PROCESSING ANALYSIS OF POROSITY IN SOME IRON- BASED POWDER METALLURGY MATERIALS

ABSTRACT

In the present study, an image porcessing analysis of porosity in some iron-based
powder materials was proposed. The specimens analyzed were produced from atomised iron powders of different sizes (< 45, 45-63, 63-100, 100-150, >150 μm). The analyzed powders were compressed in a mold using uniaxial pressing and the applied pressure was 600 MPa with the disc dimensions of  8  6 mm. The compacts were sintered at a temperature of 1.150 °C with the sintering time of 60 and 90 minutes. The sintered specimens obtained were analyzed regarding the porosity, density and microstructure.Porosity is a measure of the void fraction in a material. Voids can be closed and inaccessible or open and connected to other voids and, also, to the exterior of the material. The total porosity is defined by the ratio of the volume of void space to the total bulk volume of the material, expressed as a percentage. Development of digital images and computer software lead to a new and suitable method to determine the pore size, distribution, porosity and microstructure of powder metallurgy materials,
respectively, image processing. Porosiy of iron-based powder metallurgy materials was
measured using an image software – Image J. A correlation between the experimental
and software data analysis was established.

Keywords: porosity, microstructure, image processing, analysis