School of Physics G.N. Bisanar Frontiers of Science Series: Prof. Yong Kim, Lehigh University

The great majority of metallic solids are disordered. Under forcing, alloy specimens exhibit complex dynamics in their respective thermophysical properties. In an attempt to bring about a useful first-principle modeling, we first focus on capturing a coarse-grained physical picture of the disorder in a class of binary refractory metals. A disordered binary alloy is postulated as a randomly close-packed assembly of nanocrystallites, intermixed with atoms in glassy state. A statistical physics model of the alloy specimen is then constructed in terms of a nanocrystallite size distribution function and the consequent degree of crystallinity. An experiment with a simulated macroscopic medium of hard spheres in two dimensions and a large system of coupled law-of-mass-action equations are combined in order to predict the equilibrium thermal evolution of the alloy. The modeling yields excellent quantitative measures such as the alloy’s melting point. The analysis will be discussed, together with further explorations into the genesis of the disorder.