A descriptor-based design methodology for developing heterogeneous microstructural materials system

In designing a microstructural materials system, there are several key questions associated with design representation, design evaluation, and design synthesis: how to quantitatively represent the design space of a heterogeneous microstructure system using a small set of design variables, how to efficiently reconstruct statistically equivalent microstructures for design evaluation, and how to quickly search for the optimal microstructure design to achieve the desired material properties. This paper proposes a new descriptor-based methodology for designing microstructural materials systems. It is proposed to use a small set of microstructure descriptors to represent material morphology features quantitatively. The descriptor set should be able to cover microstructure features at different levels, including composition, dispersion status, and phase geometry. A descriptor-based multiphase microstructure reconstruction algorithm is developed accordingly that allows efficient stochastic reconstructions of microstructures in both 2D and 3D spaces for finite element analysis (FEA) of material behavior. Finally, the descriptor-based representation allows the use of parametric optimization approach to search the optimal microstructure design that meets the target material properties. To improve the search efficiency, this paper integrates state-of-the-art computational design methods such as design of experiment (DOE), metamodeling, statistical sensitivity analysis, and multi-objective optimization, into one design optimization framework to automate the microstructure design process. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using the design of a polymer nanocomposites system. The choice of descriptors for polymer nanocomposites is verified by establishing a mapping between the finite set of descriptors and the infinite dimensional correlation function.