Application of digital image processing for implementation of complex realistic particle shapes/morphologies in computer simulated heterogeneous microstructures

A new methodology is presented for computer simulations of microstructures that incorporates realistic complex particle morphologies/shapes and a specified realistic two-point correlation function. The technique also enables simulations of sufficiently large microstructural windows that include short-range (on the order of particle size) as well as long-range (few hundred times the particle size) microstructural heterogeneities and spatial patterns. Incorporation of such simulated microstructural windows in the finite element-based computations leads to local stresses and strains that have distributions statistically similar to those resulting from the corresponding real microstructure. Therefore, these microstructure simulations provide realistic representative volume elements for computational parametric studies.