The Failure Micromechanics and Toughening Mechanisms of Materials
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2017) | Viewed by 41812
Special Issue Editor
Interests: radiation shielding materials; advanced ceramics; nanomaterials; photocatalytic materials; novel materials
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Engineering materials are central to the successful evolution and prosperity of human societies in the 21st century and beyond. Many metals, alloys, ceramics, polymers and their composites are being used in structures, such as bridges, ships, aeroplanes, buildings, and so on. In addition to strength, the toughness of a material is just as critical in its ultimate use in a particular structure. Toughness is an intrinsic property of a material and it is the ability of a material to dissipate deformation energy without propagation of a crack. Not all materials (e.g., ceramics, glassy polymers) are inherently tough, which render them susceptible to brittle failure and of limited use. To circumvent this limitation, several strategies have been developed to improve the fracture toughness of these materials. However, the design of tough microstructures in structural materials demands a compromise between resistance to intrinsic damage mechanisms ahead of the tip of a crack (intrinsic toughening) and the formation of crack-tip shielding mechanisms, which act behind the tip to reduce the effective “crack-tip driving force” (extrinsic toughening). In the former, improved toughness is obtained by increasing the microstructural resistance to suppress damage in the form of microcracking or microvoid formation ahead of the crack tip. In the latter, toughness is developed primarily during crack growth and not for crack initiation. In essence, fracture arises from a mutual competition between intrinsic damage mechanisms ahead of the crack tip that promote cracking and extrinsic shielding mechanisms mainly behind the tip trying to impede it.
Toughening mechanisms and the concomitant failure micromechanics are very much material-dependent. In metals, toughness arises primarily from crack-tip plasticity and involves highly mobile dislocations. In brittle materials, such as ceramics and glassy polymers, toughening must be achieved extrinsically, i.e., through the use of microstructures which can promote crack-tip shielding mechanisms such as crack deflection, in situ phase transformations, constrained microcracking and crack bridging. Understanding of these toughening and failure processes is vital for the design and use of new-generation materials for challenging engineering applications.
It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews that cover all aspects of toughening and failure in various materials (i.e., metals, alloys, ceramics, polymers, composites, etc.) are all welcome.
Prof. Jim Low
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- Fracture toughness
- Toughening mechanism
- Failure micromechanics
- Intrinsic toughening
- Extrinsic toughening
- Crack-bridging
- Crack-tip shielding
- Plastic deformation
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