Frontiers of Quantification and Predictive Capability in Physical Metallurgy

The field of Physical Metallurgy is currently seeing major changes in its research aims from qualitative understanding to quantitative predictive capability. This is largely driven by our ability to handle massive 3D data describing the structure of materials, to locally evaluate materials properties, and to acquire systematic data series in high-throughput experiments. As 3D imaging is transitioning from technique development to application, it permits one to test modeling approaches at different levels of complexity and spatial resolution. Here, the direct modeling and simulation of experiments and the inverse modeling of the experimental results just begin to demonstrate their analytic power and their power to increase the accuracy of the measurements. Meanwhile, the classical core of the field, modelling of materials behavior and of structure-property relations, is still challenged by the difficulties to seamlessly transition between different modelling scopes from atoms to materials defects to continuum field equations. The frontiers of the field therefore are concerned with the systematization and the quantification of information on materials and with the assessment and increase of the predictive capability of the modelling and simulation. Modelling and simulation is beginning to provide thermodynamic information on materials in complex environments. Small scale experiments can be pushed to the scale of individual defects and can challenge modelling particularly concerning the mechanical properties of materials: fracture, fatigue, friction and wear. Additive manufacturing is posing new challenges to modelling and at the same time opens entirely new avenues to alloy development. The aim of this Gordon Conference is to assess these current frontiers of the field and to sketch central questions which the community will have to solve for Physical Metallurgy to advance as a field that spans from understanding atomistic processes on femtosecond time scales to assessing the behavior of structural components for years in service.