Strain, Stress and Texture Analysis with Quantum Beams

Dear Colleagues,

Residual stress measurements are most important for mechanical engineering in order to investigate and predict failure mechanisms in all modern industries, such as aerospace, pipelines, and civil infrastructure. Both neutron and synchrotron facilities have been well established to measure strains on an atomic scale, in response to externally-applied or internal-residual stress. This can be orientation and position sensitive in order to quantify the full stress tensor mapped over a specimen. Inherently, stress and strain response may strongly depend on the preferred crystallographic orientation, while the thermo-mechanic history of a specimen can be read from this texture. Furthermore, intergranular stress plays essential roles and can be physically simulated on the macro and micro-scale under in situ measurement conditions. On the other hand, strains and stresses in very local environments, such as atoms in metallic glass or foams or concrete, play a role in describing the physical properties of such material. Last, but not least, strain and stress are directly coupled to some functions of materials, such as in piezoelectrics and magnetic materials, and multiferroics.

Residual stress measurements: Understanding of residual stress in workpieces is the most straightforward application in a vast field of engineering issues. These can be thermal stresses, mechanical impacts, welding residual stresses, which also occur in additive manufacturing. Typical methods of measurements are angle- and energy-dispersive neutron or high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The specimens are translated through a gauge volume and reoriented in order to locally map the stress tensor. Often, such results flow into comprehensive engineering studies, utilizing other techniques, as strain gaging, imaging and modeling.

Load partitioning: Both residual and applied stresses are studied by recording entire diffractograms, potentially in multiple dimensions. The individual diffraction peaks shift according to the response of individual lattice planes and elucidate yielding mechanisms, the Bauschinger effect, and structural transformations.

Texture: Preferred crystallographic orientation can be mapped independently or in simultaneous combination with strain and other crystallographic information accessible by the powder diffraction method. Contributions of interest cover the entire field of texture analysis and its application, while combined strain-stress and texture analysis is encouraged.

Special geometry and time resolved: In the past, much has been studied under uniaxially-applied stress and under quasi-static conditions, while modern research investigates multi-axial stress components and also time-resolved behavior, for example in fatigue testing.

Micro-mechanical: With the realization of sub-micrometer beam sizes, micromechanical testing has become possible in investigating strain fields and yielding in individual grains and micro-pillars. Combined with micro and nano-indentation and electron-micrsoscopic techniques, we can acquire additional information, particularly from the bulk of the material or depth resolved.

Strain and orientation dependence of functional materials: Most multi-ferroic properties are coupled to mechanical strain, such as piezoelectricity, magnetostriction, and the shape memory effect. The minute response to external fields allows the development of advanced functional materials for sensors, information storage and transmission.

With these aspects in mind, this Special Issue will collect original and review papers employing state-of-the-art quantum beams in applied research and for new and novel developments—both in characterization and in materials.

Prof. Dr. Rozaliya Barabash
Dr. Pingguang Xu
Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Liss
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. Quantum Beam Science is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1600 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.

• residual stress
• applied mechanical load
• stress tensor
• lattice response
• deformation mechanisms—slip, twinning, martensitic
• yielding
• phase transformations
• thermal response
• mechanical properties
• orientation dependence and anisotropy
• texture analysis
• modelling
• electric fields
• magnetic fields
• micro-mechanical modelling
• fatigue
• welding
• additive manufacturing
• multiferroics