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Crystals
Special Issues
Recent Advances in Light Alloys
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Recent Advances in Light Alloys

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Crystalline Metals and Alloys".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023)

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Muhammad Farzik Ijaz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
Interests: alloy development (aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys, titanium alloys); phase transformations; thermomechanical treatment; mechanical characterization and microstructural analysis; materials engineering and bioinspired technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For many years, reducing fuel costs and improving fuel efficiency has been a great allure in the automotive and aircraft industries. Owing to the typical intrinsic properties of light alloys, aluminum (Al), magnesium (Mg) and titanium alloys (Ti) have garnered considerable potential in aeronautics, automotive, and medicine. For instance, the weight of commercially available Al alloys is one-third of the steel components, which makes Al alloys promisingly versatile for several applications wherein fuel efficiency and cost are prevalent. However, the strength of Al alloys is only half of steel. The improvement in the mechanical properties, especially the strength-to-weight ratio, of these kinds of nonferrous alloys remains a significant challenge to be addressed. Mechanical behavior is associated with different variables, namely processing techniques, microstructure features, environmental factors, and loading scenarios, among others. Thus, this Special Issue aims to further investigate the in-depth knowledge about the mechanical behavior of light alloys to develop sustainable and cost-effective engineering structures for advanced applications. 

In light of recent advances, both experimental and numerical approaches are encouraged. We welcome research articles, short communications, and review articles to be submitted to this Special Issue.

Dr. Muhammad Farzik Ijaz
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • multi-component light alloys
  • chemical composition optimization and design
  • development and processing
  • micro-structural and mechanical characterization
  • applications for environmentally sustainable transport

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 1920 KiB  
Article
Revisiting Alloy Design of Al-Base Alloys for Potential Orthotics and Prosthetics Applications
by Muhammad Farzik Ijaz and Faraz Hussain Hashmi
Crystals 2022, 12(12), 1699; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12121699 - 23 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2000
Abstract
The primary objective of this research was to open a promising avenue for designing new low-cost precipitation-hardened Al base alloys in semblance with the desired mechanical properties that can be exploited in the fabrication of lightweight exoskeleton frames, prosthetics, and wheelchair components. In [...] Read more.
The primary objective of this research was to open a promising avenue for designing new low-cost precipitation-hardened Al base alloys in semblance with the desired mechanical properties that can be exploited in the fabrication of lightweight exoskeleton frames, prosthetics, and wheelchair components. In multicomponent Al-Cu-based systems (2xxx), the substitution of elements such as copper (Cu), magnesium (Mg), and akin Cu/Mg ratio are mainly manipulated to improve the mechanical strength of these alloys. Nonetheless, these kinds of alloying optimizations are not well suited from the cost and sustainability points of view. The starting point of the present work is to screen out the optimum value of the Ag/Sn ratio, which can be a potential substitute for the conventional Cu/Mg alloy ratio in Al-Cu-Mg-based ternary alloys without sacrificing its key features of mechanical properties. Based on our microstructural and mechanical results, it was found that the chemical composition and microstructure were the most important variables influencing the mechanical properties. The increase in the mechanical strength of our alloys was mainly attributed to the precipitation hardening phenomenon. Typically, at peak-aged conditions, the correlation between the mechanical and subsequent microstructural analysis revealed that the synergistic increase in Ag and Sn content in the Al-Cu-Mg-based alloy led to an improvement in the mechanical strength and its trade-offs by changing the shape and distribution of the micron-scaled second phase in the matrix. From optical microscopy and subsequent scanning electron microscopy analyses, this continuous precipitated phase in the matrix is identified as the Mg2Sn phase, which is mainly elicited from the solid-state reaction during artificial aging treatment. Indeed, the presence of suitable microstructure at the peak aged condition that has uniformly dispersed, micron-scale Mg2Sn phase proved to be very useful in blocking the dislocation glide and increasing the mechanical strength of the alloys during tensile testing. This combination of precipitation-hardening phases has not been previously observed in alloys with higher or lower Cu/Mg ratios. Among the studied alloys, the alloy having Ag/Sn ratio of 23 (and chemical composition of Al-4 Cu-0.5 Mg-0.7 Ag-0.03 Sn (wt.%)-T6 (denoted as Al-loy-4) exhibited an average ultimate tensile strength of 450 MPa which is almost four times larger than the pure aluminum having an ultimate tensile strength of 90 MPa currently used in healthcare and medical industries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Light Alloys)
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