Experimental Assessment of Residual Stress in Engineering Materials Components

Dear Colleagues,

The use of precipitation hardened aluminium alloys as structural materials in passenger carrying aircraft appears to be at a crossroads. Long range civil aircraft including the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 have fuselage and wing made from carbon fibre composites. However, it is not yet clear if the next generation of current short to medium range aircraft (Boeing 737 and A320) will follow this trend. Aluminium alloys can still compete from a material availability, structural efficiency and cost of ownership position. These established materials still offer a compelling choice for aircraft manufacturers. One of the requirements of the aluminium alloys used in aircraft is the heat treatment step. Quenching from the solution treatment temperature induces distortion in thin products (sheet, extrusions) and large magnitude residual stresses in thick products (forgings, plate). It is partly due to the complex management and consequences of these residual stresses that has led to the replacement of aluminium alloys with composite materials in aircraft structures.

To continue to compete with composite materials, the prediction, characterisation, management, control and consequences of residual stresses in precipitation hardened aluminium alloys still warrants further investigation. Studies themed around the optimisation of mechanical stress relieving techniques by the use of improved multiscale models of microstructural evolution during quenching are especially relevant. These models will be capable of predicting the microstructure as a function of quench path to account for the differences in cooling in the bulk material from surface to core in large scale components. This evolution of microstructure can then be used to quantify mechanical behaviour of the material, again as a function of location within the bulk, more specifically the yield and work hardening response of the material during plastic deformation applied during stretching or cold compression.

Papers on the above and recent advances, and review articles, particularly in regard to measurement, stress relieving technologies, prediction of distortion and the impact of residual stresses on product performance are invited for inclusion in this Special Issue on "Residual Stresses in Precipitation Hardened Aluminium Alloys".

Dr. Jeremy S. Robinson
Dr. David A. Tanner
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-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.