Mechanical alloying is a promising technique for producing high-entropy alloys via the solid-state route. However, little is known yet about the atomic level mechanisms. In this work, we investigate the chemical intermixing and structural evolution of a nanocrystalline microstructure using molecular dynamics simulations. The initial polycrystalline structure is composed  of elemental Co-, Cr-, Fe-, Al- and Ni-nanograins and is studied under cyclic loading conditions at room temperature over 300 cycles in total.
First, we study the applicability of different loading protocols based on the choice of interatomic potential, strain rate and type of thermodynamic ensemble. Second, by varying the composition and phase fractions of the initial grains, we study dislocation nucleation, motion and transmission, phase transformation and grain rotation as a function of the cycle number.
Our research aims to give a better understanding of atomic level processes of mechanical alloying from an engineering point of view.