Hoeganaes Endowed Assistant Professor Yong-Jie Hu has received a five-year NSF-CAREER award for his project “Understanding Energy Statistics and Glide Mechanisms of Dislocations in Concentrated Solid-Solution Alloys.”
Dislocations are a type of crystalline defect created when atoms are misaligned. In metallic materials, dislocations play a significant role in determining their mechanical properties. This project investigates how dislocations move in concentrated solid-solution alloys (CSAs), and how this impacts their deformation.
In CSAs, various types of atoms are mixed together randomly in high amounts. This results in different chemical compositions throughout the crystal structure and varying energy barriers that affect how dislocations move. These unique features make dislocations in CSAs behave differently than in traditional alloys, leading to mechanical properties that are not yet fully understood. Using statistical theories, computational modeling and experimental validation, this project will develop a framework for quantitative predictions of dislocation movement in CSAs.
The knowledge that this project will generate could lead to the design of novel refractory alloys with excellent mechanical properties that can be processed at room temperature. These advanced materials could be key to addressing critical material needs in industries essential to energy and national security, including nuclear energy, electric power generation, and hypersonic aviation and aerospace.