Making Practical Use of Electromagnetic Fields in Materials Processing and Applications

This proposed work will to demonstrate the feasibility of developing predictive computational models and tools to exploit the effect of the electromagnetic field in the processing of high strength gear and bearing steels. This approach enables tailored microstructures with enhanced properties, especially hardness and fatigue strength, beyond the current state-of-the-art. This includes the development of physics-based computational models applicable to the Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) method with additional models to capture the electromagnetic effect during the processing. QuesTek Innovations, a leader in the field of ICME and Materials Design, proposes to utilize the emerging Magnetic Field Processing (MFP) technology that applies high strength superconducting magnetic fields to alter phase equilibria and accelerate phase transformation kinetics and the austenite-to-martensite transformations. The computational models will be tested on the development a high strength steel with hardness approaching its theoretical limit by applying the additional driving force of a high magnetic field, to suit the needs of future military and defense related gear and bearing applications.