Quantification of the microstructural evolution of polycrystalline fabrics using FAME: Application to in situ deformation of ice

•FAME determines microstructures from rock thin sections and 2D in situ deformation experiments.•Tests on D2O ice samples indicate the complex relation between texture and grain size.•Post-deformation grain growth behavior can be analysed with FAME.•Results have important implications how microstructures in ice and rocks develop.•FAME is freeware and can be applied to a diverse range of polycrystalline material.

In geology, glaciology and material science new technological advances result in an ever increasing amount of data and datasets, in particular when in situ experiments are conducted. Rapid, rigorous and reliable statistical treatment is needed to allow researchers to access these large datasets for further analysis. Here, we present FAME (Fabric Analyser based Microstructure Evaluation), a suite of Matlab® scripts that utilize the Matlab® open-source toolboxes MTEX and PolyLX (optional) for rapid quantification of thin section data. The data has been collected using an automated Fabric Analyser at a spatial resolution of 5 μm/pixel. From the dataset, grain maps are reconstructed and, grain and grain boundary statistics are determined. The same scripts calculate orientation density distribution diagrams and eigenvalues of the orientation tensor. In the case of 2D in situ plane-strain deformation experiments on polycrystalline heavy water (D2O), a Matlab® script-based batch analysis for each deformation step was performed. FAME offers the possibility to generate movie files that combine optical data with c-axes orientation data and grain statistics. Application of the presented scripts, to analyse in situ deformation experiments of polycrystalline ice, shows the value of rigorous quantification of the microstructural evolution data for process oriented research.