Determination of three-dimensional grain boundary connectivity from two-dimensional microstructures

The connectivity of so-called “special” and “general” grain boundaries at a quadruple node is known to be nonrandom as a result of crystallographic constraints. Although a quadruple node is a three-dimensional feature, there exist two-dimensional features which are topologically identical. Therefore, the distribution of these two-dimensional features may be used to determine the three-dimensional connectivity. Computer simulations of a three-dimensional microstructure which is virtually serial sectioned are used to validate the proposed approach.