Decomposable multiphase entropic descriptor

TL;DR

This paper introduces a decomposable entropic descriptor for multiphase materials that quantifies spatial inhomogeneity for each phase, enabling detailed microstructural analysis at various scales.

Contribution

It develops a phase-splitting method for the entropic descriptor, allowing separate quantification of inhomogeneity contributions from each phase in multiphase materials.

Findings

Effective detection of phase-specific inhomogeneity at multiple scales

Ability to identify hidden statistical periodicities in phases

Application to synthetic patterns demonstrates microstructural insights

Abstract

To quantify degree of spatial inhomogeneity for multiphase materials we adapt the entropic descriptor (ED) of a pillar model developed to greyscale images. To uncover the contribution of each phase we introduce the suitable 'phase splitting' of the adapted descriptor. As a result, each of the phase descriptors (PDs) describes the spatial inhomogeneity attributed to each phase-component. Obviously, their sum equals to the value of the overall spatial inhomogeneity. We apply this approach to three-phase synthetic patterns. The black and grey components are aggregated or clustered while the white phase is the background one. The examples show how the valuable microstuctural information related separately to each of the phases can be obtained at any integer length scale. Even dissimilar hidden statistical periodicities can be easily detected for chosen phases built-up of compact regular clusters.