Modeling and simulation of microstructures using power diagrams: Proof of the concept

Power diagrams are a generalization of Voronoi diagrams for arbitrary dimensions. We present a modeling and optimization scheme for power diagrams in three spacial dimensions based on the statistics of experimental data obtained from cross-sectional images of polycrystalline materials. Our optimization scheme based on the grains' area and perimeter distributions can be used to obtain realistic three-dimensional polycrystalline structures which can subsequently be used for numerical simulations. As a proof of the concept we apply our scheme to high-performance ceramics and present the results of initial shock-impact simulations of the obtained polycrystalline structures.