Multi-Information Source Fusion and Optimization to Realize ICME: Application to Dual-Phase Materials

Abstract

Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) calls for the integration of computational tools into the materials and parts development cycle, while the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) calls for the acceleration of the materials development cycle through the combination of experiments, simulation, and data. As they stand, both ICME and MGI do not prescribe how to achieve the necessary tool integration or how to efficiently exploit the computational tools, in combination with experiments, to accelerate the development of new materials and materials systems. This paper addresses the first issue by putting forward a framework for the fusion of information that exploits correlations among sources/models and between the sources and “ground truth.” The second issue is addressed through a multi-information source optimization framework that identifies, given current knowledge, the next best information source to query and where in the input space to query it via a novel value-gradient policy. The querying decision takes into account the ability to learn correlations between information sources, the resource cost of querying an information source, and what a query is expected to provide in terms of improvement over the current state. The framework is demonstrated on the optimization of a dual-phase steel to maximize its strength-normalized strain hardening rate. The ground truth is represented by a microstructure-based finite element model while three low fidelity information sources—i.e., reduced order models—based on different homogenization assumptions—isostrain, isostress, and isowork—are used to efficiently and optimally query the materials design space.