Image Analysis for assessing the degree of Banding of Microstructures

Semi-automatic method for a quantitative analysis of long continuous microstructural/chemical bands.

This method, based on Kimberly McGarrity et al.'s work [1], performs an image binarization, allowing the non-biased assessment of the transversal degree of banding of microstructures with long continuous bands or layers (longer than the sample dimensions), case in which the ASTM E-1268-01 standard cannot be directly applied.

This method has been successfully used on optical micrographs of steel grades with continuous chemical banding, anisotropy formed due to the segregation of alloying elements during solidification followed by deformation processes.

The input image, with bands parallel to horizontal axis, must not contain any margin. The file extension must be .jpg, and the image type, either RGB color (24-bit) or Grayscale (8-bit). Both the image, named band.jpg, and the m-file must be saved in the current MATLAB folder. The function is called typing:
>>band2

[1] Kimberly McGarrity, Jilt Sietsma y Geurt Jongbloed, 'Quantification of Banding in Microstructures Using an Absolute and Bounded [0,1] Scale', EUROMAT neo-meeting (2011).