A New Approach for Measuring the Distribution of Graphite Nodules Based on Singular Value Decomposition

Ductile cast iron is a family of ferrous metals widely used in automotive industry due to its wide range of mechanical properties, which are related to the microstructure of metal matrix and the presence of graphite particles (known as nodules). Particularly, the size and distribution of nodules in cast iron are related to wear behavior. In the present paper a new method for determining the degree of distribution of graphite nodules is presented, based on the orthogonal information of the nodules sparsest. The measure helps to characterize the resistance to the wear such that it increases when a uniform distribution is reached.