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Research on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Lightweight Alloys
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Research on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Lightweight Alloys

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Metals and Alloys".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2026 | Viewed by 1052

Editor

Dr. Xiaoyan Peng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: lightweight alloys; additive manufacturing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Lightweight alloys, which include aluminum, magnesium, and titanium alloys, are celebrated for their low density, high strength, excellent corrosion resistance, and outstanding high-temperature performance. These attributes make them the preferred material across a variety of sectors, such as aerospace, automotive manufacturing, rail transportation, and electronics.

Evaluating the mechanical properties and microstructure of lightweight alloys is essential to guarantee their dependability across a range of applications. Precise testing and analysis facilitate the assessment of key performance indicators, such as yield strength, tensile strength, hardness, toughness, and fatigue resistance. Additionally, microstructural analysis reveals the internal grain structure, phase distribution, and defect conditions of the alloys, providing further insight into their performance and a scientific basis for future material improvements.

This Special Issue aims to establish a platform for the dissemination of cutting-edge research and insights into the advancements within the lightweight alloy domain. These papers will investigate the intricate connections between the processing, composition, and the resulting mechanical behavior and microstructural characteristics.

For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Advanced manufacturing processes such as additive manufacturing and precision casting;
  • The influence of alloying composition and heat treatments on the final microstructure and mechanical properties;
  • The development of novel testing methods for the characterization of lightweight alloys;
  • The integration of computational modeling with experimental data to predict material behavior and optimize alloy design.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Dr. Xiaoyan Peng
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. Materials 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 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

  • aluminum alloy
  • magnesium alloy
  • titanium alloy
  • alloy composition
  • manufacturing processes
  • heat treatment
  • mechanical properties
  • microstructure
  • fatigue resistance

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 8673 KB  
Article
Process Optimization and Microstructure in High-Speed Coaxial Dual-Laser Welding of SUS301 Thin Sheets Using an SSA-BP Model
by Dexi Wang, Nan Li, Xiaohong Yan, Chunli Li, Hongyang Wang and Liming Liu
Materials 2026, 19(12), 2451; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma19122451 - 8 Jun 2026
Viewed by 339
Abstract
To predict weld geometry and clarify structure–property relationships in high-speed coaxial dual-laser butt welding of 1 mm-thick SUS301 stainless steel sheets, an SSA-BP neural network model was established to describe the nonlinear correlation between welding parameters and weld morphology. The model related continuous [...] Read more.
To predict weld geometry and clarify structure–property relationships in high-speed coaxial dual-laser butt welding of 1 mm-thick SUS301 stainless steel sheets, an SSA-BP neural network model was established to describe the nonlinear correlation between welding parameters and weld morphology. The model related continuous laser power, welding speed, pulse frequency, and pulse width to weld width and penetration depth. To improve the transparency of model validation, conventional BP and SSA-BP models were compared using the same independent test set, and five-fold cross-validation was performed using the original experimental samples. On the independent test set, the SSA-BP model achieved an overall correlation coefficient of R = 0.960, with RMSE values of 0.0561 mm and 0.0439 mm for weld width and penetration depth, respectively. Compared with the conventional BP model, SSA-BP reduced the overall RMSE, MAE, and MAPE by 25.9%, 36.4%, and 29.6%, respectively. The five-fold cross-validation further indicated stable prediction performance under different data partitions. Based on the predicted and experimentally measured weld geometry, candidate parameter sets were screened according to the weld aspect ratio (Φ = h/w). Within the present experimental window, joints with Φ = 0.82–0.84 showed more stable weld formation and relatively higher ultimate tensile strength (1211.4–1264.8 MPa) than two representative joints outside this interval (796.0 MPa at Φ = 0.63 and 1061.1 MPa at Φ = 0.88). Therefore, this interval should be regarded as a favorable empirical range under the present welding conditions rather than a universal optimum. Fractographic observations of a representative high-strength joint showed abundant dimples and tear ridges, indicating ductile fracture characteristics. EBSD analysis further revealed a graded microstructure from the weld center to the base metal. The weld center and fusion line-adjacent regions exhibited relatively high fractions of high-angle grain boundaries (66.2–70.6%), while phase distribution, GND density, and KAM maps indicated a gradual phase transition and localized but non-continuous strain concentration features across the joint. These results indicate that the present approach provides an effective route for weld geometry prediction and for linking morphology screening with tensile response and microstructural heterogeneity in SUS301 thin sheet welding. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Lightweight Alloys)
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21 pages, 1481 KB  
Article
Simulation Study on the Isothermal Aging Precipitation Process of Al3Sc in Al-Sc Alloys Using a High-Resolution Population Dynamics Model
by Hao Xiong, Yufei Zhao, Wenyi Hao, Zhenzhi Sun, Xuechun Wang, Yao Xiao, Pengliang Ji and Guodong Fan
Materials 2026, 19(10), 2175; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma19102175 - 21 May 2026
Viewed by 331
Abstract
Al-Sc alloys are widely applied in aerospace and automotive lightweighting owing to the excellent performance imparted by nano-sized Al3Sc precipitates. Accurate simulation of the full-cycle precipitation kinetics is critical for optimizing aging heat treatment processes, but the traditional Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner (LSW) theory [...] Read more.
Al-Sc alloys are widely applied in aerospace and automotive lightweighting owing to the excellent performance imparted by nano-sized Al3Sc precipitates. Accurate simulation of the full-cycle precipitation kinetics is critical for optimizing aging heat treatment processes, but the traditional Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner (LSW) theory is only applicable to the coarsening stage, while the conventional Kampmann-Wagner-Numerical (KWN) model suffers from severe numerical diffusion and fails to correct errors caused by discontinuous precipitate size distributions. To address these issues, a high-resolution population dynamics model based on the Van Leer limiter was established in this study, which is an improved KWN model that simultaneously considers interfacial energy transition during nucleation and coarsening and the effect of precipitate volume fraction on particle growth rate. Isothermal aging precipitation of Al3Sc in Al-0.2 wt.% Sc and Al-0.3 wt.% Sc alloys at 350 °C was systematically simulated, and key kinetic parameters including nucleation rate, critical nucleation radius, average precipitate radius, and normalized size distribution were calculated. The results show that the simulated average radius and normalized size distribution are in excellent agreement with experimental data, and the model accurately captures the plateau characteristic of average radius evolution during aging. Increasing Sc content significantly shortens the nucleation-growth stage and advances the onset of coarsening by approximately one order of magnitude. Compared with the LSW theory, the proposed model achieves second-order accuracy in smooth regions and suppresses spurious oscillations in discontinuous regions, fully reproducing the incubation, nucleation-growth, and coarsening stages of precipitation. This high-resolution model provides reliable theoretical support for the aging process optimization of Al-Sc alloys and offers an effective numerical method for precipitation kinetics simulation of other dilute binary alloys. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Lightweight Alloys)
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