Embrittlement and Ductility of Metallic Structural Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Toughness and ductility are two important mechanical properties for some metals and alloys employed in crucial structural components. Application of these metallic structural materials has the potential to reduce the plate thickness of structural components so as to reduce manufacturing costs and support higher external loads, thereby realizing more innovative structures.

However, some manufacturing processes or service conditions, such as welding, thermal ageing, or irradiation, could result in the embrittlement of metallic structural materials. The embrittlement of metallic materials may be divided into non-hardening embrittlement and hardening embrittlement. Non-hardening embrittlement is usually caused by grain boundary segregation of some impurity elements, such as P, S, Sb, Sn, and As. Hardening embrittlement is induced by material strengthening. In most cases, the embrittlement is always accompanied by the deterioration of ductility for metallic structural materials, which could cause difficulties in some manufacturing processes, such as rolling, forging, and drawing. Besides, poor ductility could cause engineering disasters during the service of structural components, such as boilers and pressure vessels. Therefore, embrittlement and ductility are always hot topics in the field of metallic structural materials.

This Special Issue will focus on investigations into brittleness and ductility in all types of metallic structural materials. Manuscripts regarding the following areas will be preferentially considered in the Special Issue: precipitation embrittlement; irradiation embrittlement; embrittlement under welding and joining; grain boundary segregation; hot ductility; mechanism or method of strengthening and toughening; and modeling or simulation of embrittlement or ductility. 

Prof. Dr. Shenhua Song
Prof. Dr. Gang Wang
Dr. Yu Zhao
Guest Editors

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. Metals 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.

• toughness
• ductility
• embrittlement
• brittleness
• grain boundary segregation
• metallic structural materials
• strengthening