I’ve never understood materials engineering. How do you choose from millions of possible materials and combinations? How can you even remotely begin to know a small portion of them and what their characteristics are?
Most design is a matter of satisficing, rather than optimizing. You stop when the design is good enough. Of course, sometimes “good enough” and “best possible” are about the same (e.g. for space craft).
As an engineer with experience in such matters, pick the one that seems the best, build a prototype or scale model, beat on it until it breaks and analyze the failure mode.
Computer modeling, finite element analysis, etc can streamline the process somewhat, but is still susceptible to garbage in....garbage out.
IOW, with new materials, R and D means Run and Destroy. This is why such expenses should be tax deductible!