CMI Report on Project 2.3.2 Activities – 09/2013 to 03/2014
The objective of this project is to develop and apply a Materials-Design Simulator (MDS) for predicting thermodynamic phase stability, structural and magnetic properties, and performance of complex REE-based materials. We seek to create a knowledge base for identifying alloys with desirable properties. The aim of this project is to develop an efficient infrastructure for creating a knowledge base for identifying new alloys with enhance performance and reduced REE-content, and for managing material data acquired within the Focus Area 2 and with input from Focus Area 4. This project integrates two approaches to alloy process modeling that so far have been developed largely independently: (1) electronic structure theory of alloys and (2) semi-empirical methods of computational thermodynamics and kinetics (such as CALPHAD). This project will greatly benefit from experimental data on phase characterization, heat of formation (from differential scanning calorimetry), and magnetism as a function of pressure to support the search for REE substitutes without compromising on target properties for applications. The MDS will be also greatly enhanced through the use of state-of-the-art methods of materials informatics and data mining. The MDS will facilitate examination of research results, discovery of trends, identification of knowledge gaps, and even possibly underlying scientific principles, MDS will be developed and assembled for gathering, accessing, and analyzing available material data generated externally and within CMI projects by experimentalists and modelers. The data in our knowledge base will be accessible to all hub participants via a web interface and underlying engine that will allow targeted searches through heterogeneous data on composition, property and structure spaces encompassing all contributed data.