Nanostructured Metallic Materials and Composites: Processes, Properties and Microstructures

The EUROMAT-European Congress and Exhibition on Advanced Materials and Processes- has a long history and is the most comprehensive international congress in the field of materials in Europe, which is organized every two years under the auspices the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS). The most recent EUROMAT congress was held in Thessaloniki, Greece, from 17–22 September, 2017. At this last congress of the EUROMAT series, the field of severe plastic deformation (SPD) was covered by two symposia, C10 “Thermomechanical Processing, Severe Plastic Deformation and Nanostructuring” and B4 “Advanced properties of SPD-processed metallic materials”, resulting in eight scientific sessions reflecting the continued interest in scope as well as the importance of research and development in this diverse field. This special issue of Advanced Engineering Materials contains the collection of selected papers presented at both symposia, which embraces the current state-of-art in SPD. The issue opens with the review article by Skrotzki summarizing the research on metallic nanocomposites produced by accumulated roll bonding (ARB). Several further contributions provide various examples of successful application of ARB and high pressure torsion for composite materials manufacturing using quite interesting materials combinations like Al and Al2O3 ceramic (Ivanov1), Al and steel (Kümmel) or Al and Ti (Schunk), and Ni and carbon nanotubes (Bachmaier). In the communication by Kwiecien a new procedure to produce metallic laminated composites based on application of surface mechanical attrition treatment and subsequent high-strain rate compression is introduced. The review article by Edalati provides a deep insight into the new application area of SPD for processing and consolidation of metallic oxide powders, which enhances their physical properties, for example, allows to tune a band gap. The review article by Bruder tackles important problem of deformability of SPD-processed nanomaterials which is crucial for their applications as structural materials. In this context two contributions about superplastic behavior of ultrafine grained materials included in this issue (by Bobruk and Lee) illustrate the good perspectives for achieving low temperature and high strain rate superplasticity. Two further articles are related to the microstructure formation mechanisms in austenitic stainless steels during SPD and subsequent annealing. In particular, in the paper by Belyakov various aspects of dynamic recrystallization at multiple multidirectional forging are discussed, whereas the contribution of Krawczynska is devoted to the influence of the high hydrostatic pressure on the development of static recrystallization after high pressure torsion. And in the final paper by Kriegel, completing this issue, the analysis of thermal stability of the athermal ω phase obtained by quenching of Ti–4 wt% Fe alloy is performed in comparison with that of ω phase formed at high pressure torsion. We are sure that this special issue will provide a very helpful collection of the current state of research in the field of ultrafine grained metallic materials and will contribute to the further research in the field. As Guest Editors of this special issue in Advanced Engineering Materials, we express our thanks to all authors and reviewers for their contributions and efforts in organizing an issue of the highest quality from both symposia. In addition, we would like to thank Sandra Kalveram for her excellent job as the peer-review editor. Andrea Bachmaier (Erich Schmid Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences), Anton Hohenwarter (Montanuniversität Leoben, Department of Materials Physics), Heinz Werner Höppel (Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg, Institute I: General Materials Properties), Julia Ivanisenko (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Nanotechnology). Andrea Bachmaier studied materials science at the Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria, and received her PhD in 2011. She is currently a group leader at the Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science in Austria. Her research focuses on novel strategies to produce supersaturated solid solutions in immiscible alloy systems. In 2017, she was awarded the noteworthy ERC Starting grant that allows her to work on bulk nanostructured magnets synthesized by severe plastic deformation. Anton Hohenwarter studied Materials Science and received his PhD in 2010. Currently he is with the Chair of Materials Physics in the Department of Materials Science at the University of Leoben and works in the field of fracture and fatigue of metallic alloys. Heinz Werner Höppel graduated with a Diploma in Materials Science at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen Nürnberg FAU in 1994 and finished his PhD in Materials Science at the FAU in 1997. Since then, he worked as a Research Scientist and later on as a Senior Scientist at the Institute for General Material Properties WW I at the FAU. In 2015 he finalized his habilitation with the title “Monotonic and Cyclic Deformation Behaviour of Very Fine Grained Metals”. Since 1998 he leads the group for mechanical testing and ultrafine-grained materials. His research activities are focusing on the mechanical properties of ultra-fine grained materials and laminates and on light-weight materials in general. Julia Ivanisenko graduated with a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at Ufa State Aviation Technical University and received her PhD in applied physics from the Institute for Metals Superplasticity Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences in Ufa, Russia in 1985 and 1997, respectively. She worked as a Research Scientist at the Institute for Nanotechnology, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology since September 2003, where she leads a research group now. Dr. Ivanisenko's research is mostly in the areas of severe plastic deformation, mechanical properties of nanostructured materials and mechanically driven phase transformations.