Combined computational-experimental design of high temperature, high-intensity permanent magnetic alloys with minimal addition of rare-earth elements

Rajesh Jha, Florida International University

Abstract

AlNiCo magnets are known for high-temperature stability and superior corrosion resistance and have been widely used for various applications. Reported magnetic energy density ((BH) max) for these magnets is around 10 MGOe. Theoretical calculations show that ((BH) max) of 20 MGOe is achievable which will be helpful in covering the gap between AlNiCo and Rare-Earth Elements (REE) based magnets. An extended family of AlNiCo alloys was studied in this dissertation that consists of eight elements, and hence it is important to determine composition-property relationship between each of the alloying elements and their influence on the bulk properties. In the present research, we proposed a novel approach to efficiently use a set of computational tools based on several concepts of artificial intelligence to address a complex problem of design and optimization of high temperature REE-free magnetic alloys. A multi-dimensional random number generation algorithm was used to generate the initial set of chemical concentrations. These alloys were then examined for phase equilibria and associated magnetic properties as a screening tool to form the initial set of alloy. These alloys were manufactured and tested for desired properties. These properties were fitted with a set of multi-dimensional response surfaces and the most accurate meta-models were chosen for prediction. These properties were simultaneously extremized by utilizing a set of multi-objective optimization algorithm. This provided a set of concentrations of each of the alloying elements for optimized properties. A few of the best predicted Pareto-optimal alloy compositions were then manufactured and tested to evaluate the predicted properties. These alloys were then added to the existing data set and used to improve the accuracy of meta-models. The multi-objective optimizer then used the new meta-models to find a new set of improved Pareto-optimized chemical concentrations. This design cycle was repeated twelve times in this work. Several of these Pareto-optimized alloys outperformed most of the candidate alloys on most of the objectives. Unsupervised learning methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Heirarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) were used to discover various patterns within the dataset. This proves the efficacy of the combined meta-modeling and experimental approach in design optimization of magnetic alloys.

Subject Area

Design|Engineering|Materials science

Recommended Citation

Jha, Rajesh, "Combined computational-experimental design of high temperature, high-intensity permanent magnetic alloys with minimal addition of rare-earth elements" (2016). ProQuest ETD Collection for FIU. AAI10289212.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/dissertations/AAI10289212

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