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A Special Issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417) belonging to the section "Materials Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2026 | Viewed by 6560

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Dr. Maria Amélia Ramos Loja

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1. IDMEC, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, 1959-007 Lisboa, Portugal
2. CIMOSM, ISEL, IPL—Centro de Investigação em Modelação e Optimização de Sistemas Multifuncionais, Av. Conselheiro Emídio Navarro 1, 1959-007 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: composite materials; advamced composites; numerical modeling; structural optimization; reverse engineering
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of advanced materials, such as composites, nanostructured materials, and shape memory alloys, among others, are at the forefront of innovation in engineering and technology. Enhanced strength-to-weight ratios, superior durability, and tailored responses to environmental stimuli make them ideal for applications in aerospace, automotive, biomedical, and other high-tech industries, all of which is the motivation for this Special Issue focused on the mechanical characterization and numerical modeling of advanced materials.

Among other topics, we welcome contributions related to experimental methodologies for the assessment of key mechanical properties, as well as the development and application of cutting-edge numerical and or analytical techniques to predict material behavior and optimize materials’ and structures’ designs.

Overall, this Special Issue aims to collect and disseminate critical insights and tools to harness the full potential of advanced materials, advancing their implementation in cutting-edge technologies.

We invite you to share your research work and contribute to this Special Issue.

Dr. Maria Amélia Ramos Loja
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

advanced materials
mechanical testing
experimental methodologies
numerical and/or analytical methods

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 2366 KB

Open AccessArticle

Deformation Behavior and Flow Stress Determination During Two-Stage High Shear-Strain Processing of Titanium at Ambient Temperature

by Lenka Kunčická, Petr Opěla, Zifan Wang and Radim Kocich

Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(16), 8308; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16168308 - 20 Aug 2026

Viewed by 320

Abstract

This study presents a two-stage high shear-strain processing deformation technology, consisting of the intensive plastic deformation method of rotary swaging (RS), in combination with the severe plastic deformation method of continuous equal channel angular pressing (ECAP-Conform). The designed technology is experimentally tested at 25 °C, using a commercially pure titanium. Before each individual processing step, uniaxial compression testing is used to acquire stress–strain datasets to subsequently calculate the Hensel–Spittel rheology laws for both of the processing steps. These rheology models are further used to assemble Finite Element Analyses to numerically examine the stress–strain development within the studied material. The study also investigates and characterizes selected deformation parameters. Further, the predicted results are then put in correlation with the experimentally observed (sub)substructure development. The study documents that pre-processing via two passes of rotary swaging has highly positive effects on the substructure development and microstructure homogenization within the titanium workpiece, when compared to a workpiece subjected to just a single pass of ECAP-Conform. The unprocessed Ti and the Ti subjected to RS and ECAP-Conform exhibited faster work-hardening and higher flow stress than the Ti subjected solely to RS. The results also show that the two-stage high shear-strain processed titanium exhibited significantly higher homogeneity of distribution of the imposed strain than a conventional titanium subjected solely to ECAP-Conform. As confirmed by the numerical analyses, the nature of the material plastic flow during RS affected positively the homogeneity after ECAP-Conform. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties and Numerical Modeling of Advanced Materials)

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16 pages, 14882 KB

Open AccessArticle

Physics-Informed Machine Learning Framework for Fatigue Life Prediction of Additively Manufactured Alloys

by Hyoju Ahn, Jongwon Lee, Saurabh Tiwari and Nokeun Park

Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(13), 6493; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16136493 - 30 Jun 2026

Viewed by 568

Abstract

The fatigue life prediction of additively manufactured (AM) alloys remains challenging owing to process-induced defects, microstructural variability, and complex loading conditions of the alloys. This study presents a domain-knowledge-informed machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) framework for fatigue life prediction, in which physically motivated fatigue descriptors are integrated into the feature space using experimentally obtained stress–life (S–N) data. Four physics-guided engineered descriptors, namely the normalized stress (σ_a/UTS), R-modified stress amplitude, UTS/YS ratio, and elastic strain energy density, were incorporated into the modelling framework to improve mechanistically grounded learning across diverse alloy systems. Five ML/DL models, namely Deep Artificial Neural Network (DANN), XGBoost, Extra Trees, Stacking Ensemble, and Random Forest, were benchmarked against the classical Basquin stress–life baseline. DANN achieved the best test-set performance (R² = 0.7114, RMSE = 0.5205 log cycles), whereas XGBoost exhibited the highest cross-validation performance (R² = 0.7547 ± 0.056). Ablation analysis confirmed the positive contributions of both the engineered descriptors (ΔR² = +0.115) and runout indicator (ΔR² = +0.107) to the predictive capability. The runout flag is appropriate for retrospective database modelling. For prospective applications, the no-runout configuration (R² = 0.5504) substantially outperformed the Basquin baseline (R² = 0.1244) and is recommended when runout information is unavailable. TreeSHAP analysis identified normalized stress and elongation as dominant predictors, with σ_a/UTS showing substantially greater importance than did the raw stress amplitude. The results demonstrate that physics-informed feature engineering substantially improves fatigue life prediction across the alloy systems and processing conditions represented in the dataset; however, further validation is required for under-represented additive manufacturing processes and alloy classes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties and Numerical Modeling of Advanced Materials)

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21 pages, 4967 KB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel XFEM–Taguchi Coupled Methodology for Fracture Analysis and Parameter Optimization of Pressurized Pipelines

by Aya Barkaoui, Mohammed El Moussaid, Hassane Moustabchir, Sorin Vlase and Maria Luminita Scutaru

Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(12), 6213; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16126213 - 19 Jun 2026

Viewed by 330

Abstract

This study presents a combined numerical–statistical framework based on the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) and the Taguchi optimization method to assess the fracture behavior of pressurized pipelines containing external longitudinal cracks. XFEM is employed to evaluate the local fracture response without remeshing, while the Taguchi method is used to quantify the influence of key parameters and identify an optimal configuration with a limited number of simulations. The control parameters considered are internal pressure, initial crack length, and wall thickness, and the evaluated mechanical responses include circumferential stress, the J-integral, and the stress intensity factor. The optimization follows the “smaller-the-better” criterion to minimize stress concentration, fracture-driving forces, and the risk of structural failure. Results indicate that internal pressure predominantly affects circumferential stress and the stress intensity factor, whereas wall thickness has the greatest influence on the J-integral. The optimal parameter combination is determined through signal-to-noise ratio analysis and validated using the delta method, confirming the robustness of the selected configuration. A confirmation simulation performed with XFEM demonstrates a consistent reduction in all fracture-related mechanical responses, highlighting the effectiveness of the proposed approach. It should be noted that the present study is limited to the static fracture assessment of external cracks and does not address fatigue crack growth or fatigue life prediction. Overall, the proposed methodology provides a decision-support tool for pipeline integrity management by integrating numerical fracture mechanics analysis with robust design optimization, thereby contributing to safer operation and improved structural reliability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties and Numerical Modeling of Advanced Materials)

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21 pages, 7836 KB

Open AccessArticle

Numerical and Experimental Tensile Testing of Quilling-Inspired S-Shaped Unit Cells for Mechanical Metamaterials

by Vasilica Ioana Cimpoies and Mircea Cristian Dudescu

Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(11), 5528; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16115528 - 2 Jun 2026

Viewed by 347

Abstract

This study introduces and characterizes a family of quilling-inspired S-shaped unit-cell architectures intended as building blocks for mechanical metamaterials. In contrast to conventional lattice designs based mainly on straight struts, the proposed geometries use continuous curved elements inspired by paper quilling, enabling deformation mechanisms dominated by bending, rotation, and progressive opening of the curved members. By translating quilling’s coiled and spiraled patterns into engineered geometries, nine distinct S-shaped unit cells were fabricated by fused deposition modeling and tested experimentally under uniaxial tensile loading. Finite element analysis was performed to reproduce the tensile response and to assess the influence of geometry on stiffness, stretchability, and energy absorption. The results show that relatively small changes in radii, span lengths, angular distribution, and symmetry produce significant differences in mechanical response. Compact configurations such as S2, S3, and S5 exhibit high stiffness and limited elongation, whereas S9 shows the highest compliance and stretchability. The results indicate that these quilling-inspired architectures provide a tunable design space and have strong potential for applications in energy absorption, adaptive structures, and lightweight load-bearing systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties and Numerical Modeling of Advanced Materials)

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25 pages, 6073 KB

Open AccessArticle

Beam Finite Element Model Modification Considering Shear Stiffness: Octet-Truss Unit Cell with Springs

by Soheil Gholibeygi, Hale Ergün and Bahar Ayhan

Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(16), 8969; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15168969 - 14 Aug 2025

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2124

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of modifying a beam model for octet-truss lattice structures to calculate the homogenized material properties using the average stress method. While alignment is observed at low relative densities, the unmodified beam model derives underestimated results at higher relative densities, reaching up to 40% and 30% for elastic and shear modulus values, respectively, for a relative density of 0.5. Beam model modification achieved by increasing strut stiffness at the joints is investigated in detail, and we conclude that both modulus values cannot fit the solid model’s results with this type of modification. This study proposes a novel modification method involving seven spring elements with two constants to capture both the elastic and shear moduli. This study concludes by compensating differences between the solid and beam models’ moduli with the inserted springs, providing an analytical solution for the linear elastic system. The performance of the unit cell models is tested by solving two lattice structures at which the elastic modulus and shear modulus were dominant, respectively, on the mechanical behavior. The results converge to a constant value when the number of unit cells is six, and the beam with a spring model achieved a performance that was close to that of the solid model for the shear-modulus-dominant lattice structure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties and Numerical Modeling of Advanced Materials)

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17 pages, 3356 KB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Adaptive Process Control on Mechanical Properties of Plastic Parts and Process Robustness

by Tomasz Olszewski, Danuta Matykiewicz and Michał Jakubowicz

Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(16), 8829; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15168829 - 10 Aug 2025

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1580

Abstract

This work aimed to assess the influence of the iQ Weight Control System on the weight, dimensional stability, and mechanical properties of injection-molded samples. The properties of products made from glass fiber-reinforced polyamide and 50% regrind from post-production waste were evaluated. The mechanical properties, such as impact strength and tensile strength, were measured to determine the material’s performance. Additionally, a spiral flow test was conducted to verify the process robustness and repeatability when producing with either virgin material or a blend of virgin and regrind material. The spiral flow test, which involves injecting the polymer melt into a spiral mold, provides insights into the processability and flow characteristics of the polymer under high shear rates. This test is crucial for assessing the consistency of the injection molding process and ensuring that the material maintains its properties across different production batches. Results demonstrated that, despite the viscosity reduction associated with regrind, the system successfully maintained a consistent shot weight, thereby stabilizing the amount of material injected into the mold cavity. The iQ Weight Control System activation led to an increase in impact strength from 9.50 kJ/m² to 10.78 kJ/m² for virgin samples and from 9.26 kJ/m² to 9.73 kJ/m for a 50/50 virgin/regrind blend. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties and Numerical Modeling of Advanced Materials)

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Review

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71 pages, 8291 KB

Open AccessReview

Thin-Film Coating Technologies for Energy-Efficient Glazing: Materials, Deposition Systems, Methods of Analysis, and Functional Performance

by Ana Tufescu, Corneliu Munteanu, Florin Brinza, Viorel Paleu, Daniela-Lucia Chicet, Bogdan Istrate and Fabian-Cezar Lupu

Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(16), 8188; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16168188 - 17 Aug 2026

Viewed by 416

Abstract

Low-emissivity (low-E) coatings are among the most effective thin-film technologies for reducing radiative heat losses and controlling solar heat gain in buildings, which account for approximately 30–40% of global primary energy consumption. This expanded review follows the technological evolution of low-E glazing from early transparent-conductor “heat mirrors” to modern multi-silver dielectric/metal/dielectric (D/M/D) architectures and emerging functional coatings. Four complementary perspectives are addressed: (i) the materials employed, from silver-based multilayers and transparent conducting oxides (ITO, FTO, AZO, GZO) to seed, blocker, and protective dielectric layers; (ii) the deposition systems, contrasting on-line pyrolytic/CVD “hard” coatings with off-line magnetron-sputtered “soft” coatings, together with ALD, sol–gel, and evaporation routes; (iii) the methods of analysis used to correlate microstructure, composition. and interfaces with optical, electrical, and thermal behaviour (XRD, XRR, SEM/TEM, AFM, XPS, SIMS, spectrophotometry, ellipsometry, emissivity, and U-value metrology according to EN 410/EN 673 and ISO 9050); and (iv) the functional performance of low-E stacks in insulating glass units, vacuum glazing, retrofit films, and smart-window systems across climate zones. Persistent research gaps are identified in long-term durability and ageing, indium-free scalable materials, standardized accelerated testing, and multi-objective design of thinner, more selective, and more robust stacks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties and Numerical Modeling of Advanced Materials)

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