High-Resolution Deformation Mapping Across Large Fields of View Using Scanning Electron Microscopy and Digital Image Correlation

This paper details the creation of experimental and computational frameworks to capture high-resolution, microscale deformation mechanisms and their relation to microstructure over large (mm-scale) fields of view. Scanning electron microscopy with custom automation and external beam control was used to capture 209 low-distortion micrographs of 360 μm × 360 μm each, that were individually correlated using digital image correlation to obtain displacement/strain fields with a spatial resolution of 0.44 μm. Displacement and strain fields, as well as secondary electron images, were subsequently stitched to create a 5.7 mm × 3.4 mm field of view containing 100 million (7678 × 13,004) data points. This approach was demonstrated on Mg WE43 under uniaxial compression, where effective strain was shown to be relatively constant with respect to distance from the grain boundary, and a noticeable increase in the effective strain was found with an increase in the basal Schmid factor. The ability to obtain high-resolution deformations over statistically relevant fields of view enables large data analytics to examine interactions between microstructure, microscale strain localizations, and macroscopic properties.