Refractory high entropy alloys and ceramics (RHEAs and RHECs) with outstanding phase stability, high-temperature mechanical strength, corrosion and irradiation resistance in extreme environments are critical for next-generation gas turbine engine blades, gas-cooled fast reactors, fusion systems, and hypersonic vehicles. The recent development of RHEAs and RHECs has offered remarkable potential for developing new systems with high-temperature strength and creep resistance. However, the high melting temperatures of these materials represent a challenge to the synthesis of bulk component shapes. Traditional synthesis methods such as solidification, powder metallurgy, and sintering are either difficult due to limited mold materials or involve multiple time-consuming and expensive processes. However, innovations in advanced manufacturing (e.g., additive manufacturing) are capable of overcoming the component fabrication challenge. Further investigation of the microstructure-property correlations in these recently developed materials are thus needed to accelerate their structural and functional applications.
Topics of interest for this symposium include, but are not limited to:
(1) Advanced processing of RHEAs and RHECs which includes but are not limited to high-throughput manufacturing, additive manufacturing, laser sintering, impurity control (e.g., O, N, C, P, S), machining and forming of nominally brittle materials, surface modification, and coating technologies.
(2) Advanced testing and characterization methods for materials applied under extreme conditions, including in-situ synchrotron/SEM/TEM mechanical testing, mechanical testing at high temperatures, small-scale mechanical testing for ion-irradiated materials, ultrahigh temperature (~4000 K) characterization, and advanced transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (including electron backscatter diffraction), and atom probe tomography.
(3) Advances in the performance of RHEAs and RHECs under extreme conditions, which include but are not limited to creep, fatigue, wear, oxidation resistance, and radiation resistance.
(4) Advanced computational efforts on the high-throughput discovery and design of new RHEAs and RHEAs, which include but are not limited to high-throughput CALculation of PHAse Diagrams (CALPHAD) calculations, density functional theory-informed database construction, and machine learning.