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 accidents. 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 biomaterials), high-temperature fatigue, thermo-mechanical fatigue and super long life fatigue of various engineering materials. In combination 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. |
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