Colloquium: Jianfeng Nie, Challenges and Opportunities in Mg Alloys

Abstract

A remarkable progress has been made over the past ten years on research and development of magnesium alloys and as a result more and more magnesium products are appearing in the market. Despite the emergence and the significance of magnesium alloys as a class, their adoption in automotive and aerospace applications remains limited compared to that achieved for aluminium alloys. One of the most important technical reasons is that there are still less magnesium alloys for design engineers to select from. For those existing, cost-competitive magnesium alloys, they have inadequate mechanical properties (strength, ductility, and/or creep resistance) and/or less-satisfactory formability. Attempts to improve the performance of existing magnesium alloys, and to develop new alloys, require a much better understanding of alloy microstructures and, more importantly, microstructural factors that control the formability and properties of magnesium alloys. This presentation will provide an overview of challenges and opportunities in magnesium research, with a focus on alloy microstructures and microstructure-property relationships. It will be demonstrated that the microstructures in magnesium alloys are still far from being well understood.

Bio

Professor Jian-Feng Nie received his Ph.D. from Monash University in 1993. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the University of Queensland in 1993, and CSIRO Materials Science and Technology in 1994. He was awarded a Logan Research Fellowship by Monash University in 1997. His research interests include design and development of light alloys, crystallography of phase transformations and applications of transmission electron microscopy. He published over 100 papers in international journals. He is a member of the Board of Review, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions, former Chair of Phase Transformations Committee of TMS, and Chair of the National Events Committee of Materials Australia.