Prof. Prita’s research group has been working on investigating the links between the microstructure of metals and alloys and their plastic deformation, using a combination of experiments and modelling. Medium Mn­steels comprise the third generation of advanced high strength steels (AHSS), which have a combination of high strength and ductility. These properties are achieved by tailoring a two­phase microstructure, which, during plastic deformation, undergoes deformation by multiple modes, namely twinning, phase transformation and dislocation slip. We show that both twinning and phase transformation can occur depending on the local composition of austenite grains (Fig 1) [2]. Ni based superalloy GTD444, is used to make directionally solidified blades for later stage turbines. Since Boron is added as a grain boundary strengthener, the microchemistry near boundaries and the crystallographic orientation of grains both influence deformation at elevated temperatures. We show that M2B type borides are present near boundaries, where M is Cr, W, and Mo (Fig. 2) [2]. These borides transform into M6C and M23C6 type carbides upon thermal aging, present discretely along the boundary, and prevent inter­granular fracture. Cu­Al alloys are excellent model system to study solute strengthening and the effect of stacking fault energy, which reduces by an order of magnitude as Al content increases from 0 to about 8 wt%. Deformation of miniature tensile samples was carried out, and misorientation developed along twin and high angle boundaries measured (Fig. 3) [3]. This was explained based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of twinned crystals by observing dislocation accumulation near twin boundaries.

Professor Gururajan's research interests include modelling of microstructural evolution. He has close collaborations with experimentalists and enjoys working with them. The work carried out in his group includes phase field and atomistic modelling for phase transformation and deformation induced microstructural evolution. His research group is involved in developing and implementing new formulations of phase field models, and, more importantly, in developing open source code suites for phase field modelling. His research group consists of several undergraduates (from all over the country), masters students, phd students and post­docs who use cellular automaton, molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo and phase field models. The research carried out in the group is funded by projects from the Government of India as well as industries (Indian as well as International).

Prof. Durga's key research interest lies in modelling microstructure evolution when an alloy is subjected to different processes, be it casting, additive manufacturing (AM), or heat treatment. She has worked extensively on different approaches such as phase­field modelling, cellular automata and other numerical and analytical models. Through coupling such models with multicomponent Calphad thermodynamic and mobility databases, she has ensured that the models can be applied to technical alloys. In her research career thus far, she has worked on different projects collaborating with both industry and academia. Her research group is currently working on microstructure modelling during fusion­based metal AM [1,2] and solidstate phase transformations during AM. She is the PI of a project funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board on modelling microsegregation during metal AM and a co­ PI on a project within the JSW Technology Hub for Steel Manufacturing on alloy design.

Prof. Patra's research interests are in the prediction of microstructuremechanical property correlations using physically­based crystal plasticity constitutive equations. These tools have been used for simulating deformation in nuclear, aerospace and automotive alloys. A key emphasis of his research is also on the development of computational methods, including open source tools, for such applications.

Prof. Amrita Bhattacharya leads the Ab initio Computational Materials Simulation laboratory in the MEMS department. Her works involve understanding and predicting the microscopic phenomena behind the electronic, magnetic, and transport properties of emerging materials using the state­of­the­art quantum mechanical density functional theory based methods. In addition, she has also set up an experimental laboratory for the solid­state synthesis of alloys and for the analysis of their electronic transport properties. She also has an interest in data driven machine learning based methods.