Statistical Analysis of Microstructures in Materials Science

Rating:
Summary: Excellent blend of theory and practice
Review: This is a well-written, beautifully presented, useful and interesting book. It explains how materials scientists can analyse and characterize microstructures in 3D materials, using modern statistical methods from 'stochastic geometry'. The authors are respectively a mathematical statistician and a materials scientist. The exposition is excellent, and goes all the way from basic theory to practical applications, including free software on their web site. The presentation is a good balance of theory, verbal explanation and practical examples. The illustrations and diagrams are very effective, and include some superlative 3-D pictures. The software is nicely presented and explained, also in relation to the equations. The topics covered include basic stereology, texture characterisation, digital image measurement, covariance and spectral techniques, size and shape distributions of particles, spatial arrangement of objects, and polyhedral single-phase microstructures. I found only a few tiny typos so far. Well worth the hardback price - and the hardback binding will take a beating before I'm done with it!