ALLOY DESIGN STRATEGIES THROUGH COMPUTATIONAL THERMODYNAMICS AND KINETICS APPROACHES

In this work, we present an example in which computational thermodynamics and kinetics can be used, in conjunction with experiments and models for predicting the mechanical response of microstructure to design alloys and processing parameters in the spirit of the Materials Genome Initiative and the Integrated Computational Materials Science and Engineering ( ICME) framework. Specifically, we describe the optimization of strength and ductility of so-called Transformation Induced Plasticity ( TRIP) steals. We show how we can use models to predict the phase constitution of complex TRIP microstructures as a function of alloying and processing. We briefly describe how we can use experiments and simple models to relate phase constitution ( amount of phases and their composition) to properties/performance. Finally, we show how we can use the established alloy/processing-microstructure-properties relations to determine alloying and processing parameters that yield optimal mechanical properties.