This direction examines how microstructure maps onto properties in new processes and new alloy systems, covering titanium alloys, stainless steels and dissimilar-metal joints made by laser powder bed fusion, together with CoCrNi- and FeCoCrNi-based medium- and high-entropy alloys.

In additive manufacturing, the influence of laser power, scanning speed, scan strategy and interlayer rotation on melt-pool morphology, grain orientation, residual stress and mechanical properties is studied, with emphasis on whether grain orientation remains continuous through layer-by-layer deposition and whether heat treatment preserves or erases that orientation memory. In dissimilar joining, microstructural transition and residual stress near the interface of T91/316H bimetallic components are examined. In high-entropy and medium-entropy alloys, compositional control with Al and Mo is used to obtain dual heterogeneous structures, metastable structures and precipitates; strength-ductility combinations are compared across microstructural states, and in-situ diffraction is used to identify the deformation mechanisms, including load partitioning between phases and hkl grain families over a wide temperature range.

Process parameters serve as independent variables, microstructural descriptors as intermediate variables, and mechanical properties and residual stress as responses, so that results from different processes and compositions can be compared within one framework.