Characterization of porous surfaces with spatial point pattern analysis

Abstract

Nowadays thermal plasma spray coating is widespread in automobile industry. For example, in the cylinder manufacturing process coatings are applied for friction reduction, wear and corrosion resistance. After the honing process, a coated surface exhibits porous microstructures, which are often characterized in order to understand functional correlations between key parameters of the pores and friction performance. In this paper, spatial point pattern analysis is used to investigate the pores' distribution in a two dimensional space. Methods, such as nearest neighbor analysis and Ripley's K-function, are used to conduct the experiments to analyze the observer's pattern. Different edge correction methods in Ripley's K-function are introduced. Confidence envelopes are simulated using the Monte Carlo method. Experimental results are presented to reveal the patterns of pores, where influences of the selected measurement area on the results are taken into account and further discussed. © 2015 SPIE.