diff --git a/introduction.tex b/introduction.tex index 69559e8..61231b8 100644 --- a/introduction.tex +++ b/introduction.tex @@ -19,8 +19,11 @@ \section{Big Picture} \label{intro:sec:bigpicture} The motivation for this specific choice of application - \emph{metallic alloys targeting extreme environments}, has been twofold. First, several intrinsic challenges, including competing property trends, scarce experimental data (relative to room temperature), and compositional complexity of currently studied alloy families, make this problem very difficult. Thus, it is also an excellent target for the design of advanced methods that can mitigate them while encountering and addressing otherwise hidden problems. +- elaborate + Secondly, such alloys are of great interest to the society. For instance, per the US Department of Energy's ARPA-E estimates, developing a standalone alloy that could continuously operate at $1300^oC$ has the potential to increase gas turbine efficiency up to $7\%$, which will significantly reduce wasted energy and carbon emissions by saving up to 20 quads of energy in electricity generation and civilian aviation between now and 2050 \cite{ULTIMATEArpa-e.energy.gov}. Such efficiency increase could prevent the release of approximately 1,000,000,000,000 kg of \ch{CO_2} from burning natural gas, or double that from coal; thus, becoming a critical effort in fighting global warming in applications, like airplanes, where green technologies cannot be directly adapted. Another extreme environment application, quite far from the first one, is the class of hypersonic vehicles that travel faster than 5 times the speed of sound \emph{through Earth's atmosphere for extended periods of time}, thus generating extreme sustained temperatures within structural components. This prompts the need for novel materials and engineering techniques, as evidenced by massive funding assigned to this research area by the US military, which increased its yearly budgets for hypersonic \emph{research} from \$3.8 billion in FY2022 to \$4.7 billion in FY2023, and to an undisclosed amount this year (FY2024) \cite{Sayler2024HypersonicCongress}, further demonstrating the criticality of such materials. +- CHADWICK \section{Flow of Material Discovery and This Work} \label{intro:sec:flow}