Effect of Heat Treatment on Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of Industrial Alloys

Dear Colleagues,

Heat treatment is a fundamental process in materials science and engineering, and is used to precisely control and modify the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of industrial alloys. It involves a series of controlled heating and cooling operations designed to modify an alloy's microstructure, primarily to achieve a desired balance of properties such as strength, hardness, ductility, and toughness.

This process is widely applied in industries like automotive manufacturing, where it optimizes the mechanical properties of advanced high-strength steels such as TRIP, DP, QP, and QPT steels. Similarly, heat treating nickel-based superalloys is critical for achieving an optimal size and distribution of gamma prime (γ') precipitates, dispersed within the gamma (γ) matrix phase, which is essential for maximizing creep strength.

In general, precipitation-hardening treatments are extensively applied to both ferrous and nonferrous alloys to enhance their industrial performance. Furthermore, the application of CALPHAD-based computational methods has become crucial for analyzing phases formed during these treatments and for the advanced design of alloy compositions and their corresponding heat treatment protocols.

This Special Issue welcomes articles that focus on the computational and experimental analysis of the effect of heat treatments on microstructure evolution and the mechanical properties of ferrous and non ferrous alloys.

Prof. Dr. Maribel Leticia Saucedo Muñoz
Dr. Victor Manuel López Hirata
Guest Editors

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