Estimation of three-dimensional mean dihedral angle in a W–Ni–Fe alloy liquid-phase sintered in microgravity

The three-dimensional mean dihedral angle of impinging W grains is estimated in a 50 wt.% W–35 wt.% Ni–15 wt.% Fe alloy liquid-phase sintered in microgravity at 1500 °C for times ranging from 1 to 600 min using unbiased stereology and automated image analysis. The estimated mean dihedral angles are in the range 50 ± 3°. The mean dihedral angle does not vary significantly with the liquid-phase sintering time, although the mean intercept size of the W grains increases almost by a factor of 5.