Soft computing techniques in advancement of structural metals

Current trends in the progress of technology demand availability of materials resources ahead of the advancing fronts of the application areas. During the last couple of decades, significant progress has been made in computational and experimental design of materials. Among the potential computational techniques, soft computing stands in distinction due to the inherent flexibility in capturing the complexity of the problem in global scale. Since 1990s remarkable success has been achieved in soft computing activities in different facets of materials science and engineering. Extensive efforts have been devoted in design of metals and alloys based on composition–process–microstructure–property correlation. The present review aims to address the contribution of soft computing in the field of structural metals and alloys including processing and joining. The critical issues concerning applicability of particular techniques in specific materials problem have been particularly emphasised encompassing the scope of integrating the gradual progress in different techniques in hybrid and tandem framework to address greater complexities in larger length and time scale. Attempt has also been made to emphasise on the evolution of newer knowledge and materials through soft computing activities. Finally, the potential of soft computing techniques in futuristic design approaches has been critically enumerated.