EBSD-Image provides a flexible and structured interface to implement new algorithms to process and extract information from diffraction patterns. Two applications are given to demonstrate the analytical benefits of the software: (1) the characterization of the microstructure of Zr-2.5Nb pressure tubes and (2) the quantification of deformation induced during metallographic specimen preparation using different metrics to evaluate the diffraction quality. Furthermore, this work presents tools to validate new algorithms via the generation of simulated diffraction patterns as well as utilities to process and analyze large data sets on a distributed computing grid. Two file formats are introduced to provide a more practical way of processing large numbers of diffraction pattern image files and to share the results of an analysis. Finally, an equation linking the two resolutions of the Hough transform for diffraction patterns of any size and a method to remove artifacts created by vertical Kikuchi bands in the Hough space are proposed.

Philippe Pinard is a Ph.D. student in material engineering at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany. His main research interests are microscopy and the development of new characterization techniques.