Leveraging mechanical resonances for the selection of promising materials in complex phase spaces

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how mechanical resonance measurements can rapidly and non-destructively evaluate high-entropy alloys, providing accurate elastic constants to guide materials discovery in vast compositional spaces.

Contribution

It introduces mechanical resonance as a versatile experimental tool to efficiently assess and benchmark high-entropy materials, aiding in the discovery process.

Findings

Mechanical resonance provides high-accuracy elastic constants.

Resonance measurements are rapid and non-destructive.

Methodology demonstrated on refractory high-entropy alloys.

Abstract

The "high-entropy" paradigm has been applied to a central challenge in materials science, the design of new functional materials with enhanced performance for targeted applications, with some notable successes over the last twenty years. However, the immensity of the high-entropy design space remains a major impediment to discovering optimal compositions with tailored microstructures. Suites of high-throughput computational tools have been developed to address this problem, but there is a compelling need to inform these models with fast, economical, non-destructive, and versatile experimental guidance. In this work, we demonstrate mechanical resonance measurements can address this need. Mechanical resonance measurements enable the rapid, non-destructive assessment of materials created by novel syntheses and/or processes and provide high-accuracy determinations of elastic constants to directly benchmark models. We exemplify these capabilities on W-Ta-Cr-V-Hf and Mo-Nb-Ti-V-Zr refractory high-entropy alloys and suggest methodologies for the wider adoption and application of mechanical resonance measurements.