Editorial for Special Issue of Field‐assisted Materials Processing: Recent Innovations and Microstructural Evolution

Abstract

Materials processing, an important branch of materials science and engineering, converts raw materials into practical materials and their products for technological applications. These processing methods are developed to satisfy the service needs based on sound scientific theory. Different processing conditions confer practical materials with controllable microstructures and thus specific mechanical and functional properties. Therefore, developing novel processing methods and exploring the interaction between microstructure and properties under different processing conditions have received much attention in the scientific community, especially in recent years. With the rapid progress of modern science and technology, novel materials processing technologies involve the coupling of multi-physics field, including temperature, stress, electric field, magnetic field, gravity, ultrasonic field, microwave field, etc. The multi-physics field can give rise to some unique thermodynamic and kinetic behaviors during materials processing and thus lead to novel microstructures, such as refined grains, bimodal/multi-modal microstructure, heterogeneous microstructure, etc. Thus, the field-assisted materials processing technology is considered a revolutionary method to fabricate competitive high-performance practical materials. A large and wide group of researchers have been engaged in the study of multi-physics field-assisted materials processing technology and produced remarkable results. The current special issue of Field-assisted Materials Processing: Recent Innovations and Microstructural Evolution collects 28 original research articles and reviews on recent developments in metallurgy and materials, especially in field-assisted materials processing. These articles are representative of some cutting-edge results around the world, with contributions from different countries across the globe. To be specific, laser additive manufacturing coupling temperature and laser field is capable of producing complex products with high efficiency and high precision by high energy and highly focused laser heat source. The influence of laser parameters on associated microstructure evolution and properties during laser additive manufacturing is explored in pure Cu (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2021, 2101138), high-entropy alloys (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2200131), 316L stainless steel (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2200641), Inconel alloy (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2200492), and NiTi shape memory alloys (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2200504). Spark plasma sintering, which couples temperature-stress-electric field as an integral, is used to fabricate tungsten alloys (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2200615), Zr-based amorphous alloys (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2200557), Al-based composites and Ti-Zr-Ni alloys (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2200327) for enhancing the properties and elucidating the densification mechanisms. Furthermore, magnetic field is the most widely applied energy field among the field-assisted processing methods because of the low cost, convenience and special magnetic effects. Li et. al prepared SmCo-based thin films by magnetic field-assisted magnetron sputtering and the grain refinement under the external magnetic field has largely increased the coercivity (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2101456). Also, Xu et. al. (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2200682) summarized the application and influence of magnetic field in various welding techniques, and especially, the effects of the Lorentz force on the arc, molten pool, and dendrite solidification are clarified. In addition, electric field is also utilized to improve the productivity and efficiency of the manufacturing process. Izadpanah et. al (Adv. Eng. Mater. 2022, 2200425) reviewed the investigations on the influence of electrical current parameters on the forming ability, especially through computer simulation approaches, aiming to reach consensus on the underlying mechanisms of the electric effect on formability. This special issue presents some recent developments and achievements in materials science and processing engineering and is helpful to further promote the innovation of scientific research in related fields. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the authors of the articles and the editorial staff of Advanced Engineering Materials for producing excellent articles and highly efficient editorial help. We anticipate that more creative attempts on various energy fields-assisted processing techniques and in-depth studies on the effects of multi-physics field on microstructure evolution and associated properties can be expected in the near future.