Determination of Grain Size

Eng. Saeed Mater Eng. Ahmed Al-Afeefy

Objective
To become acquainted with photomicrography and
make use of it in the determination of the grain size
for a microsection.

Introduction
Metals, except in a few instances, are crystalline in
nature and, except for single crystals, they contain
internal boundaries known as grain boundaries.
When a new grain is nucleated during processing
(as in solidification or annealing after cold working),
the atoms within each growing grain are lined up in a
specific pattern that depends upon the crystal
structure of the metal or alloy. With growth, each
grain will eventually impinge on others and form an
interface where the atomic orientations are different.

Procedure
n
100
= N
m
* [M / 100]
2
n
100
: number of grains per square inch at 100x magnification.

Nm

: number of grains per square inch at the magnification M of
the photomicrograph.

N
100=
2
N-1

The ASTM grain size number N= [ ln (N
100
) / ln ( 2) ] +
1
How to calculate the are of one grain (actual area of
grain at M
1
)???????????????????????


How to calculate the grain size
Let M =200
A = 2*3 = 6 inch
2
n
m
= 200 grain /6 inch
2
= 33.3 grain / inch
2

n
100
= n
m
* [M / 100]
2
=33.3*[200/100]
2

n
100
=133.2 grain / inch
2

N= [ ln ( n ) / ln ( 2) ] + 1

= [ ln ( 133.2) / ln ( 2) ] + 1

= 8.06 grain / inch
2