arXiv subjects

Chris Bean

Publications and source records attributed to Chris Bean.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Interpretable Material Spatial Intelligence for Discovery of Governing Microstructural Features

Many material systems exhibit complex spatial and temporal interactions across multiple length scales and modalities that govern macroscopic behavior. Although Machine Learning (ML) is widely used in materials science to predict this behavior, most approaches still rely on handcrafted descriptors or aggregated representations that overlook spatial organization, limiting insight into governing mechanisms. We introduce Materials Spatial Intelligence (MSI), a framework inspired by spatial intelligence that learns directly from multimodal spatial observations of material systems. MSI encodes high-resolution microstructural and deformation data into shared latent representations that preserve spatial relationships while supporting property prediction, interpretation, and optimization. By combining multimodal representation learning, MSI identifies the key features governing mechanical behavior and property trade-offs in structural alloys. Beyond prediction, MSI enables feature-driven microstructure optimization and mechanism discovery. More broadly, MSI establishes a foundation for applying spatial intelligence to materials science, leveraging interpretable ML systems to accelerate scientific discovery and materiel design

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

DAS-AIS Association Patterns for Vessel Monitoring on an Operational Subsea Fibre Link

We present a case study on the Emerald Fibre Bridge Link, an operational subsea telecom cable connecting Dublin and North Wales, examining DAS vessel-related signatures jointly with concurrent AIS data. The observations show that vessel-related DAS responses depend on local cable sensitivity and background conditions, while their interpretation is complicated by imperfect AIS reporting. Examining vessel-crossing events jointly, we identify representative DAS-AIS association patterns, ranging from clear vessel matches to offset, ambiguous, AIS-incomplete, AIS-silent-candidate, and non-vessel confounders. These observations reveal the gap between physical measurements at the cable and cooperative vessel reporting, providing practical insights for designing future DAS-assisted cable-protection workflows.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2025

Plasticity Encoding and Mapping during Elementary Loading for Accelerated Mechanical Properties Prediction

Encoding metal plasticity captured from high-resolution digital image correlation (DIC) can be leveraged to predict a wide range of monotonic and cyclic macroscopic properties of metallic materials. To capture the spatial heterogeneity of plasticity that develops in metals, latent space features describing plasticity of a small region are spatially mapped across a large field of view while maintaining the same spatial relationships as the experimental measurements. Latent space feature maps capture the complexity and heterogeneity of metal plasticity as a low-dimensional representation. These feature maps are then used to train a convolutional neural network-based model to predict monotonic and cyclic macroscopic properties. The approach is demonstrated on a large set of face-centered cubic metals, enabling rapid and accurate property prediction. The effects of hyperparameters and training strategies are analyzed, and the extension of the proposed approach to a broader range of metallic materials and loading conditions is discussed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Learning Metal Microstructural Heterogeneity through Spatial Mapping of Diffraction Latent Space Features

To leverage advancements in machine learning for metallic materials design and property prediction, it is crucial to develop a data-reduced representation of metal microstructures that surpasses the limitations of current physics-based discrete microstructure descriptors. This need is particularly relevant for metallic materials processed through additive manufacturing, which exhibit complex hierarchical microstructures that cannot be adequately described using the conventional metrics typically applied to wrought materials. Furthermore, capturing the spatial heterogeneity of microstructures at the different scales is necessary within such framework to accurately predict their properties. To address these challenges, we propose the physical spatial mapping of metal diffraction latent space features. This approach integrates (i) point diffraction data encoding via variational autoencoders or contrastive learning and (ii) the physical mapping of the encoded values. Together these steps offer a method offers a novel means to comprehensively describe metal microstructures. We demonstrate this approach on a wrought and additively manufactured alloy, showing that it effectively encodes microstructural information and enables direct identification of microstructural heterogeneity not directly possible by physics-based models. This data-reduced microstructure representation opens the application of machine learning models in accelerating metallic material design and accurately predicting their properties.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗