In Silico Design of Materials and Processes: An Application of ICME to Carburizing Steels

Abstract

The availability of high computational power and sophisticated mathematical modeling techniques has ushered in a new era of multiscale and multiphysics materials and process modeling to accelerate engineering decision making. These developments have led to the concept of integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) which aims for concurrent design and development of materials, processes and products by making use of detailed material modeling supported by supplementary data-driven modeling and multiobjective optimization techniques. The present work focuses on adopting an ICME approach for concurrent design of carburizing-grade steel and process using integrated process modeling and design exploration technique. An integrated, composition-dependent, microstructure-based modeling module is used to model the process route of carburizing–quenching–tempering for carburizing-grade steels. The module is used to explore various combinations of composition and process set-points for predicting different microstructure and property outputs. The output generated by this module is used to develop surrogate models which is then used in a solution space exploration framework to obtain the most suitable composition and process conditions that can result in the desired requirements associated with the properties of final product while maintaining different operational constraints. The results predicted by the proposed framework are discussed and the need for in silico design approach for materials and process development is highlighted.