Improvement of Bragg-edge Neutron Transmission Imaging for Evaluating the Crystalline Phase Volume Fraction in Steel Composed of Ferrite and Austenite

The Bragg-edge neutron transmission imaging method can quantitatively visualize various types of crystalline microstructural information inside a bulk material over a large visualization field area. In this study, we investigated and improved both the experimental method and the data analysis method for the evaluation of crystalline phase volume fraction in steel composed of ferrite/martensite and austenite. For wavelength-resolved neutron transmission imaging experiments, we confirmed that accurate measurement of neutron transmission intensities was crucial. Therefore, the background neutrons scattered from a sample must be reduced. Simultaneously, we confirmed that a neutron wavelength resolution of approximately 1% was required. For the data analysis of the measured Bragg-edge neutron transmission spectrum, we used double March-Dollase orientation distribution functions for each crystalline phase to achieve effective spectrum correction of the crystallographic texture effect. As a result, this data analysis method allows improved evaluation of the crystalline phase volume fraction, compared with the use of a single March-Dollase function for each phase.