Effect of Co content on mechanical properties of laser cladded WC coatings: Insights from first-principle calculation and machine learning

Crystal structures of laser cladded WC-xCo coatings with different Co contents were established to investigate the effects of Co content on their crystallinities and microstrains of WC-xCo coatings. The optimized composite models of WC-xCo coatings were computed using the charge density and density functional theory to obtain the atomic binding models of WC and Co, and XRD spectra were obtained through reflection to calculate the particle sizes and microstrains of WC-xCo coatings with the Scherrer formula. The Poisson's ratios and Young's moduli of WC-xCo coatings were determined using an elastic modulus calculation function, demonstrating a positive correlation among the particle sizes, microstrains and mechanical properties of WC-xCo coatings. Furthermore, machine learning approach was employed to fit and train the linear regression model, allowing for the mapping of the relationships among the proportion of Co elements, particle sizes and micro-strains of WC-xCo coatings.

Automated summary

The crystal structure models of WC-xCo coatings with different Co contents were established, and the atomic binding models and XRD spectra were calculated. The Poisson's ratio and Young's modulus of the coatings were determined, and the linear regression model was fitted and trained by machine learning method to study the effect of Co content on the properties of the coatings.