This PhD thesis is a part of the Accelerated Metallurgy (AccMet) project funded under the Seventh Framework Programme. AccMet’s aims consists on the delivery of an integrated pilot-scale facility for the combinatorial synthesis and testing of those unexplored material.
The contribution of this thesis to AccMet has been expanded in 3 years while focused in the understanding and development of a methodology suitable for the combinatorial synthesis of novel materials, and particularly of High Entropy Alloys (HEAs). These novel materials are composed of multiple elements at near equiatomic levels with the capacity of forming simple
crystalline phases such as bcc and fcc instead of the expected intermetallic compounds as well as their excellent combination of structural and functional properties compared to the traditional materials.
A mathematical technique known as Principal Component Analysis has been used here to identify patterns within a set of metallic systems forming a wide range of crystalline structures. This technique would not only speed up the compositional design stage but also contribute to the development of a virtual library containing all the explored systems.
Mercury Centre has been an important key during the synthesis of HEAs where Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) and Electron Beam Melting (EBM) have been successfully applied for the development of the thesis.
The final combination of the design stage, production and characterisation of HEAs developed in this thesis would result in an advances technique suitable not only for the synthesis of novel HEAs, but also for the discovery of other unexplored systems
