Introduction

Fatigue of materials is referred to as accumulation and evolution of internal defects, which result in the consequent property deterioration of materials. The main processes of fatigue are nucleation and propagation of local cracks, and final fatigue fracture. Fatigue fracture often causes tremendous and catastrophic accident. Normally, the intrinsic factors affecting fatigue of materials include atomic bonding types, crystal structures, compositions, interfacial properties, defect types (point defects, dislocations, stacking faults, twins, second phase particles and inclusions) and their size effects. The external factors affecting fatigue consist mainly of strain level, loading modes and rates, deformation temperature and service environment medium. Currently, this division is systematically carrying out researches on basic theories of fatigue and fracture and fatigue life prediction of engineering materials, including fatigue and fracture mechanisms, strength theories and applications, deformation mechanisms of advanced materials (nano-structured materials, ultrafine-grained materials and biomaterails), high-temperature fatigue, thermo-mechanical fatigue and super long life fatigue of various engineering materials. In combinations of macroscopic properties with microstructures, and basic theories with engineering applications, the main mission of this division is to develop new theories and new testing technologies of fatigue and fracture, which have clear physical meaning and can be reliably employed in engineering applications.

Research Groups

1. Fatigue and Fracture Mechanisms of Materials (Lead: Dr. Zhe-feng ZHANG)
2. Mechanical Properties of Thin Films and Small-Scale Materials (Leader: Dr. Guang-ping ZHANG)
3. Mechanical Properties of Bulk Nanocrystalline Materials (Leader: Dr. Lei LU)
4. Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials (Leader: Prof. Shou-xin LI)

Research Areas

1. Mechanical properties and deformation mechanisms of advanced materials: Nano-crystalline and ultrafine-grained materials; bulk metallic glassy materials; thin films and small-scale materials.
2. Crystallographic effects of deformation and fracture: Various single crystals and bicrystals of metals and alloys.
3. Interfacial and size effects of deformation and fracture: Grain boundaries; twin boundaries; phase boundaries; interfaces in thin films and small-scale materials, interconnect interfaces; metal/ceramic interfaces and so on.
4. Fatigue and fracture of engineering alloys: Steels; light metals and alloys; super-alloys; Ti-based alloys and so on.
5. Loading and environmental effects of fatigue and fracture: Multi-axial fatigue; high-temperature fatigue; thermo-mechanical fatigue and ultra-high cycle fatigue.