The TWIP steels show high strain hardening rates with high ductility which results in high ultimate tensile strength. This makes their processing by equal channel angular pressing very difficult. Up to now, this has only been achieved at warm temperatures (above 200 C). In this paper, a FeMnCAl TWIP steel has been processed at room temperature and the resulted microstructure and mechanical prop...

Braced piers of steel truss bridges having braces with latticed built-up cross-sections may su er significant damage during earthquakes due to the buckling, rapid strength degradation, and fracture of the braces. One retro t alternative for such a bridge pier is to supplement the existing structural system with a system of energy dissipation devices (or structural fuses) that will yield and dis...

Polysynthetically-twinned titanium aluminide (PST-TiAl), a fully lamellar γ-TiAl+α2Ti3Al dual-phase alloy, is under evaluation for applications in rotary components in aircraft and automobile industries due to its high specific strength, and a high strength-retention capability at elevated-temperatures. However, the low ductility at roomto mid-high temperatures of the material hinders its appli...

Mixed-surface octyl/methoxyundecyl a-zirconium phosphonates (ZrPs) were investigated as distributed nanoscale fillers, in concentrations up to 50% w/w, for the purpose of increasing the elastic modulus and yield strength of polycaprolactone (PCL) without a meaningful reduction of its ductility. The volumetric nanoparticle loadings were estimated to be over 70% higher than those in nanocomposite...

Many natural structures use a foam core and solid outer shell to achieve high strength and stiffness with relatively small amounts of mass. Biological foams, however, must also resist crack growth. The process of crack propagation within the struts of a foam is not well understood and is complicated by the foam microstructure. We demonstrate that in cancellous bone, the foam-like component of w...

The lack of durability in concrete repairs induces repair failures in field and endless “repair of repairs”. Most often drying shrinkage of “new” repair material restrained by “old” concrete substrate causes cracking in the repair material, combined with interface delamination between the repair and the concrete substrate, which may also introduce chlorides, oxygen, moisture, alkali or sulphate...

Al-Si-based casting alloys have a great potential in various industrial applications. Common strengthening strategies on these alloys are accompanied inevitably by sacrifice of ductility, known as strength-ductility trade-off dilemma. Here, we report a simple route by combining rapid solidification (RS) with a post-solidification heat treatment (PHT), i.e. a RS + PHT route, to break through thi...

Recently, steel fibre reinforced polymers (SFRP) sheets have been introduced for the repair and rehabilitation of concrete structures. Few researchers studied the behaviour of the concrete columns wrapped with SFRP sheets; however, several critical parameters such as the cost and ductility effectiveness of the SFRP wrapped concrete columns have been lightly addressed. Thus, the main objective o...

Current concrete technology has made higher concrete grades more affordable to mid and high-rise buildings; hence its use has been increasing in the late years as it allows for smaller cross-sections, reduction of the structure’s weight, improve durability, among other benefits. However, it is known that brittleness of plain concrete increases with the strength; therefore, some national codes h...

Microstructure evolutions and mechanical properties of a commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti, grade 2) during multi-pass rotary-die equal-channel angular pressing (RD-ECAP) and cold rolling (CR) were systematically investigated in this work, to achieve comprehensive property for faster industrial applications. The obtained results showed that the grain size of CP-Ti decreased from 80 μm of as-rec...