Recent Advances in Low-Density Steels

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is devoted to recent advances in low-density steels because of their excellent combination of specific strength and ductility. Reducing the density of steels is a novel approach to reduce the weight of engineering structures, thus saving material and energy. The mentioned steels can be divided into three categories: ferritic steels, duplex steels and austenitic steels, depending on their microstructure.

Since low-density Fe-Mn-Al-C steels can produce a variety of microstructures, we encourage researchers to publish their work on microstructure evolution and the influence of different alloying additions on the microstructure of Fe-Mn-Al-C steels. Different alloying additions also affect the solidification interval, which plays an important role in process metallurgy. Especially when we want to incorporate newly developed steels into the industrial process. Another important aspect in the development of steels is heat treatment, which is necessary to achieve a precisely defined microstructure and thus mechanical properties. The mechanical properties are particularly important in engineering materials and are closely related to the microstructure. In more complex alloy systems such as Fe-Mn-Al-C, phase precipitation plays an important role in the final microstructure and mechanical properties.

The main focus of the Special Issue “Recent Advances in Low-Density Steels” is the collection of papers dealing with a wide range of low-density steels and presenting recent advances in this field. In particular, in relation to microstructures and all the associated properties already mentioned.

Dr. Tilen Balaško
Dr. Jaka Burja
Dr. Barbara Šetina Batič
Dr. Aleš Nagode 
Guest Editors

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