Future Materials Design

Purpose and goal

The project has addressed the need for new models and modelling tools to describe precipitation in metallic materials by integrating ab initio calculations, CALPHAD and fundamental modelling of nucleation. The project has involved collaboration between five research groups and seven companies to develop important new buildning blocks for future development of metallic materials.

Expected results and effects

The project has extended the classical theory of nucleation and resulted in new descriptions for homogeneous and heterogeneous precipitation. DFT and CLAPHAD have been used to derive surface energies which have been used in simulations of carbide precipitation in tools steels and microalloyed steels and sigma phase in stainless steels, which have been correlated to experimental investigations. The project contributes to agenda step 3 Accelerate materials develoment within the strategic innovation area Metallic Materials

Planned approach and implementation

The project has been divided into five work packages which focused on modelling of interfacial energies, modelling of nucleation, application to carbides, application to sigma phase and knowledge transfer. The project has held two application workshops and three seminars for dissemination and competence transfer, and has resulted in 10 reports, 4 publications (with more planned) and educational material.