The influence of various microscopic techniques on the quantification of stereological structure parameters in Waspaloy alloy

Quantitative metallography has been performed on the Ni-base superalloy Waspaloy using various microscopic techniques. Analytical transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry and atomic force microscopy have been applied for an evaluation of microstructure and stereological parameters for the particle size distributions, particle number density and volume fraction of primary and secondary γ' precipitates. The influence of the specimen preparation technique on the measured quantitative parameters for γ' was investigated and described.