The Misorientation Distribution Function

Abstract

The analysis of misorientations has up to now usually be carried out by comparing the values obtained experimentally using two dimensional distributions of rotation axes or rotation angles with the distribution calculated by Mackenzie for the statistically random case. In this paper the presentation of the distribution of the misorientations is based on the three dimensional orientation distribution function (ODF) (as described by Bunge). The new function is termed the misorientation distribution function (MDF) to differentiate it from the ODF. The advantages in using this function are presented and illustrated by three MDF′s derived from the work of Haessner, Pospiech and Sztwiertnia.