Quantification of the microstructures of hypoeutectic white cast iron using mathematical morphology and an artificial neural network

This paper describes an automatic system for segmentation and quantification of the microstructures of white cast iron. Mathematical morphology algorithms are used to segment the microstructures in the input images, which are later identified and quantified by an artificial neuronal network (ANN). A new computational system was developed because ordinary software could not segment the microstructures of this cast iron correctly, which is composed of cementite, pearlite and ledeburite. For validation purpose, 30 samples were analysed. The microstructures of the material in analysis were adequately segmented and quantified, which did not happen when we used ordinary commercial software. Therefore, the proposed system offers researchers, engineers, specialists and others, a valuable and competent tool for automatic and efficient microstructural analysis from images. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.