Crystallography and Applications of Metallic Materials

This Section of Metals covers the disciplines of crystallography and related applications for metallic solids. Most metallic materials used in science and engineering applications possess crystalline lattice structures that in turn affect their physical properties. Crystal structure defects such as dislocations and point defects, and other microstructure features such as grain boundaries and twins, also influence behaviors. A fundamental understanding of the physical properties and behaviors of these material systems enables selection of the proper material for a given structural application and the prediction of the performance of the material in its intended role. Microstructures can be altered by thermal and mechanical processing operations that affect grain orientations, grain sizes, and phase distributions. Relationships among structure, properties, and performance are perpetually sought to enable the design and optimization of new technologies.

This Section will consider submissions that address fundamental and applied research topics for crystalline metallic materials. Research may be of interest to one or more of the following scientific disciplines: materials science, materials physics, engineering mechanics, and metallurgy. Material systems of interest to this Section of the Metals journal include single crystalline metals, polycrystalline metals, and composites with one or more crystalline metallic components. Substances can be pure metals or alloys. Newly emerging nanostructured and microstructure-designed materials from manufacturing sciences are also of interest. Contributions that are theoretical, computational, or experimental are all welcome, probing length scales from atomic to the macroscale. Areas of focus may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Crystal structures, grain and phase boundaries and crystal twins;
• Crystal dislocations, disclinations, point defects and radiation effects;
• Elasticity of crystalline metals (single and polycrystals);
• Plasticity of crystalline metals (single and polycrystals);
• Thermodynamics and phase transformations of crystalline metals;
• Synthesis and processing of crystalline metals and their alloys;
• Mechanical, electrical, thermal and magnetic properties of crystalline metals;
• Texture, lattice diffraction, and microscopy methods for metallic materials.

Submissions dealing with other topics in the general scope of the Section are also encouraged.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/crystallography_applications_metallic_materials