Predicting hydrogen segregation energy distributions in strained regions of tungsten using artificial neural network

Employing the smooth overlap of atomic position (SOAP) descriptors, we established an artificial neural network (ANN) model with the ability to effectively and accurately predict the segregation energy Eseg distributions of hydrogen (H) atoms in various strained regions of tungsten (W). The model is verified to have comparable accuracy with the molecular statics (MS) relaxations, as quantitively evidenced by the root mean square error (RMSE) values of 0.018 eV for the homogeneously strained regions, averagely 0.025 eV for regions near different dislocations, and 0.032 eV for regions surrounding an interstitial H cluster. Besides, the predictions yield no systematic bias at both high and low Eseg extremes, which is a common issue in the elastic theory (ET) calculations. Moreover, Eseg values are precisely predicted with the RMSE value of 0.041 eV surrounding an interstitial H cluster that is not encountered during the learning phase of the model, demonstrating the model’s robust generalization capability. Considering its markedly enhanced computation speed, this accurate ANN model holds promising prospects in circumstances that require massive Eseg calculations.