Neutron Diffraction Research on Metallic Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Development of new advanced metal alloys and composites for many applications is frequently based on the application of neutron beams to probe the materials on an atomic level. While neutron beams are better known for fundamental scientific exploration, they are also frequently employed by industry to study metallic components with low tolerance for failure, such as jet engines, car engines, oil and gas pipelines, structural supports for bridges, submarine hulls, rail tracks, and heat exchangers or reactor parts in power plants. In these cases, neutron diffraction can be a vital step both in failure analysis and in qualification of parts before they used.

The gentle, yet penetrating power of neutron beams allows one to non-destructively determine stress anywhere inside metallic components while the component is subjected to realistic conditions of pressure, temperature, applied stress, and even corrosive environments. Since this method is non-destructive, measurements can be taken on the same component before, after, and sometimes during a manufacturing process.

In addition to stress and strain, neutron beams are used to study crystallographic texture, phase evolution, and transformations, or to examine thin films, surfaces, and interfaces, or porous materials, such as may be relevant to hydrogen storage. In this issue, we solicit contributions from the leading researchers is stress, solidification, metal phase analysis, aluminum heat treatment technologies, hydrogen in metals and alloys, and studies of hydrogen mobility in thin films.

Prof. Dimitry Sediako
Guest Editor

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