P G Kubendran Amos
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
Kubendran Amos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. He completed his doctoral studies in the computational materials science group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, where he also served as a postdoctoral scientist. His research primarily focuses on the theoretical modelling of material behaviour at the microscopic scale and integrating advanced artificial intelligence techniques to quantify the outcomes.He and his team are at the forefront of employing machine learning-based computer vision techniques to investigate the kinetics of spatio-temporal evolution in materials. Their recent work aims to develop microstructural fingerprints that correlate processing conditions with material properties, advancing the understanding of material behaviour and enhancing predictive capabilities in materials engineering. He was selected Associate of IASc in 2023.
Session 1E: Lectures by Fellows/Associates
Chairperson: Saraswathi Vishveshwara, IISc, Bengaluru
Was NASA’s Microgravity Experiment on Material Coarsening Ill-Planned? Insights from AI-Assisted Materials Research
The properties of two-phase materials, consisting of a matrix and a precipitate, depend on the volume fraction and size distribution of the latter. However, under suitable conditions, the average precipitate size increases over time to reduce the overall interface energy of the system. Given the resulting changes in properties, efforts are made to understand and predict the temporal evolution of the precipitate. A foundational theory captures the kinetics of this coarsening evolution through critical assumptions [1]. NASA sought to validate and extend this theory by analyzing the microstructural evolution of a Pb–Sn solid–liquid system in microgravity, ensuring the underlying assumptions were met [2]. While initial investigations suggested that the Pb–Sn system followed the established theory, further AI-assisted analyses revealed that the system evolved through an unexpected mechanism. These analyses identified trans-interface diffusion as the primary factor controlling the kinetics of microstructural evolution in the Pb–Sn solid–liquid system, as opposed to the migration of chemical species in the matrix [3]. As a result, the volume fraction of the precipitate showed no consistent effect on the coarsening kinetics.