The 17-4PH alloy is a martensitic stainless steel with 3–5 wt% Cu, strengthened by the precipitation hardening. Due to excellent mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and ease of heat treatment, this alloy has unique applications in nuclear power plants and marine constructions. In this paper, the influence of ageing heat treatment, solution annealing followed by ageing at 480, 550 and 62...

The effects of natural aging (NA), and its combination with pre-aging (PA), on the strength electrical conductivity (EC) drawn Al–Mg–Si AA6201 conductor alloys were studied. Natural had a negative impact precipitation before drawing process. However, wire counteracted detrimental influence hardening; after post-aging, NA samples exhibited better EC compared to those that did not undergo NA. Tra...

The change in near-tip stress field in Small Scale Yielding (SSY) for cracks located at an interface between two materials with different plastic work hardening is investigated. The difference in hardening is termed hardening mismatch, and is quantified through the parameter n, which is the difference in hardening exponent between the two materials. For cracks in elastic-ideally plastic materia...

Drought stress is the main cause of mortality of holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) seedlings in forest plantations. We therefore assessed if drought hardening, applied in the nursery at the end of the growing season, enhanced the drought tolerance and transplanting performance of holm oak seedlings. Seedlings were subjected to three drought hardening intensities (low, moderate and severe) for 2.5 and ...