Precision FIB sectioning of a pipeline steel stress corrosion cracking (SCC) test specimen allows measurement of
crack length and depth. High magnification images of the FIB'd crack surface in cross section (inset) allow aspect
ratios to be measured periodically without disrupting neighbouring cracks, which can then continue on for further tests
in the SCC solution. Due to the very small amount of
material removed during each sectioning and imaging operation, versus the large number of cracks, this process can
be repeated many times over the course of a corrosion test to obtain excellent statistics from a single sample.
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