Physical and Mechanical Properties of Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI)

Dear Colleagues,

Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) is recognized as a strategic foundry material for advanced engineering, offering an excellent combination of high mechanical strength, outstanding fracture toughness, and good ductility that makes it a cost-effective alternative to quenched-and-tempered steels. Thanks to its excellent strength-to-weight ratio, a critical factor in its growing adoption is ADI's ability of facilitating the lightweight design, so its strength allows us to produce thin-section components, significantly reducing overall mass, a key factor in improving the energy efficiency of modern vehicles, especially in transportation, like heavy trucks and rail, and earthmoving machinery sectors. The final properties of ADI are intrinsically linked to its microstructure, a complex balance of acicular ferrite and high-carbon retained austenite, the control of which depends closely on the austempering treatment parameters.

This Special Issue is dedicated to advancing ADI research to bridge the gap between materials science and application needs, aiming to elucidate the strengthening mechanisms and the failure behaviour through investigating the relationship between retained austenite stability and critical in-service properties, such as tensile and fatigue strength and wear resistance. The work collected here ranges from computational modelling to advanced experimental analysis, offering a multidisciplinary perspective to optimize thin-section processes with new heat treatment techniques and alloy modifications that ensure microstructural homogeneity, essential for maximizing the weight reduction potential of thin-walled components and analysing in-service behaviours that provide robust data on the response of ADI to extreme operating conditions and dynamic loads.

Dr. Giuliano Angella
Prof. Dr. Marcin Górny
Guest Editors

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