STATISTICAL STUDIES OF INTERMETALLICS STRESSING THE VALIDITY OF 3 PRINCIPLES

The design of new materials and the prediction of their properties are becoming an essential component of materials science. Combinations of phase diagram information, structural information and a variety of ph ysical property information are necessary components of such predictiv e systems. In this paper we analyse structural and chemical data of in termetallic compounds and show how they comply with the following prin ciples: (1) symmetry principles, (2) simplicity principles, (3) chemis try principles. The results of many of the statistics shown in this pa per can be used to develop additional information for a knowledge base in a predictive system. With the aid of statistical plots we will dem onstrate some practical applications, such as exploring certain resear ch trends and querying the database to narrow down the number of compo unds of specific interest.