Machine learning for structure-guided materials and process design
This work addresses the problem of accelerated materials innovation for materials engineers by providing a generic optimization method, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing concepts in the field.
The authors tackled the challenge of optimizing the entire process-structure-property chain in materials engineering by developing a holistic machine learning approach to identify near-optimal material microstructures and processing paths, demonstrating its functionality in simulated metal forming to produce crystallographic textures with desired properties.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in accelerated materials innovation in the context of the process-structure-property chain. In this regard, it is essential to take into account manufacturing processes and tailor materials design approaches to support downstream process design approaches. As a major step into this direction, we present a holistic and generic optimization approach that covers the entire process-structure-property chain in materials engineering. Our approach specifically employs machine learning to address two critical identification problems: a materials design problem, which involves identifying near-optimal material microstructures that exhibit desired properties, and a process design problem that is to find an optimal processing path to manufacture these microstructures. Both identification problems are typically ill-posed, which presents a significant challenge for solution approaches. However, the non-unique nature of these problems offers an important advantage for processing: By having several target microstructures that perform similarly well, processes can be efficiently guided towards manufacturing the best reachable microstructure. The functionality of the approach is demonstrated at manufacturing crystallographic textures with desired properties in a simulated metal forming process.