Cost-effective search for lower-error region in material parameter space using multifidelity Gaussian process modeling

Abstract: Information regarding precipitate shapes is critical for estimating material parameters. Hence, we considered estimating a region of material parameter space in which a computational model produces precipitates having shapes similar to those observed in the experimental images. This region, called the lower-error region (LER), reflects intrinsic information of the material contained in the precipitate shapes. However, the computational cost of LER estimation can be high because the accurate computation of the model is required many times to better explore parameters. To overcome this difficulty, we used a Gaussian-process-based multifidelity modeling, in which training data can be sampled from multiple computations with different accuracy levels (fidelity). Lower-fidelity samples may have lower accuracy, but the computational cost is lower than that for higher-fidelity samples. Our proposed sampling procedure iteratively determines the most cost-effective pair of a point and a fidelity level for enhancing the accuracy of LER estimation. We demonstrated the efficiency of our method through estimation of the interface energy and lattice mismatch between MgZn2 and {\alpha}-Mg phases in an Mg-based alloy. The results showed that the sampling cost required to obtain accurate LER estimation could be drastically reduced.