DCM is a MS-Windows-based software platform for 3D microstructure characterization, modelling and visualization. It include the following functionalities:
- Generate digital 3D representation of material compositional phases in a sample using the data-constrained modelling methodology and X-ray CT data, even for the cases that there are partial volumes of multiple phases in the same image voxel;
- Visual presentation of 3D volumetric data. The visualization is compatible with various display devices, including stereo 3D monitors;
- Exporting 3D data in various formats, including the web-friendly Web3D format for interactive 3D online view, without installation of any plugins;
- Functionality of the software can be extended by adding plug-in modules to perform virtually unlimited 3D modelling. A set of C++ programming API is included for user convenience.
The DcmLite can be downloaded for evaluation. Please feel free to contact us if you would be interested in acquiring a DCM software user licence, R&D collaboration, commercial exploitation, or knowing more about DCM.
Quantitative and sample-non-destructive (SND) characterization of 3D microscopic composition distribution in materials is important to a broad range of R&D disciplines. Although the X-ray CT and threshold image segmentation approach is widely used, it is subjective and imposes an arbitrary length-scale cut-off at the X-ray CT pixel size. This makes it inadequate for materials with fine structures smaller than the imaging pixels or with similar X-ray attenuation properties.
By integrating statistical physics and multi-energy quantitative X-ray CT, DCM explicitly reconstructs 3D microscopic distributions of materials and incorporates fine structures below X-ray CT image resolution as voxel compositional partial volumes. i.e., the fine length-scale information below image pixel size is preserved. This offers a more accurate representation of material microstructure in 3D and enables more quantitative modelling of material properties. It has been implemented as a user-friendly DCM software for MS-Windows, which can also be used as a general-purpose 3D simulation tool with its plug-in feature. A selection of datasets and plugins is available at the CSIRO Data-Access-Portal. The DCM software has three variations: the DcmPro, the DcmEdu for non-commercial use, and the DcmLite which is free of charge for non-commercial use. A tutorial introduction, YouTube video-demo and Youku video demo are available. Recent applications of DCM include advanced materials, additive manufacturing, energy and mineral resources. DCM has been adapted as a core technology in Xander-Q for non-destructive quality evaluation of additively-manufactured metal components. Quantum annealing would have the potential to advance the computational capability.