CD Laboratory for Design of high-performance alloys by thermomechanical processing

The CD laboratory will focus in the design of high performance alloys by means of thermomechanical processing. These materials are usually exposed to high temperatures and loads at service condi-tions, therefore requiring a tight control of the microstructure in terms of homogeneity, grain size and precipitation state to assure their performance. On the other hand, damage produced during pro-cessing such as pores, cavities, hot tearing, shear bands and cracks, decrease drastically the proper-ties of any final product. The damage conditions must be identified and avoided. Non-ferrous metals for (1) light weight design and (2) high temperature applications will be analized.
The main objective of this laboratory is to get a deep understanding and sound descriptions of the microstructure evolution of non-ferrous alloys during thermomechanical processing to design high performance products. To achieve this, experimental, modelling and simulation tools will be required
(1) to characterize, describe and model the physical phenomena that take place in metallic materials during their industrial processing as well as at service conditions, and
(2) to develop simple physical based multi-scale models that can be generalized for various materials and processes.
Additionally, the modification of traditional processing routes will be oriented to reduce the energy involved during metals processing.