Holy Grail – this way
Deakin
researcher Dr Ilchat Sabirov has taken metallurgists ever closer to their
Holy Grail – high strength nanostructured metals with good ductility.
It has long been known that ultra-fine-grained (UFG) metals and alloys possess excellent mechanical strength.
However, their commercial application has been hampered by poor ductility – the amount of deformation a material can sustain before breaking.
A paper published - with Dr Sabirov (above) as the lead author - in the prestigious Acta Materialia has created a better understanding of the relationships between the mechanisms of plastic deformation and tensile ductility of UFG alloys.
“To a lot of people, this might all sound very technical,” said Professor Peter Hodgson, head of the Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation at Deakin University who is Dr Sabirov’s supervisor.
“However, it is a very important because it may provide some clues into mechanisms that would help metallurgists achieve their Holy Grail.
“We have all been searching for high strength through heavy grain refinements but with good ductility.
“We are all very excited at the way Ilchat has taken things forward.”
Dr Sabirov says the new strategy for alternating the mechanisms of deformation could prove highly advantageous to the space and aviation industries.
“They are always interested in lighter materials, particularly high strength aluminium alloys,” he said.
“This new approach allows us to keep the same strength while increasing the ductility.”
Dr Sabirov is a prize recruit for Deakin. Originally from Russia, he completed a Masters at UFA State Aviation Technical University.
He then did his PhD at the University of Leoben, before joining Deakin from the Austrian Academy of Science.
He chuckles at the suggestion that he got on the wrong plane, mistaking Australia for Austria at the airport terminal.
“I stayed for two years in Austria after completing my PhD,” he said. “I chose to come to Deakin because I had been to Australia before and seen the work being done here and it had great potential.
“Coming here also provided the chance to work with Professor Peter Hodgson who is famous for his work with metals.
“On this project I also worked with a number of other colleagues including Professor Matthew Barnett from Deakin, Professor Yuri Estrin and Dr Ilana Timokhina from Monash University.
“It really was a team effort which is the way we do research at Deakin.”
Dr Sabirov’s work at the CMFI has been supported by the Australian Research Council through Professor’s Peter Hodgson’s Federation Fellowship. The research project was executed within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals.
For further information: http://www.deakin.edu.au/scitech/cmfi/
research/areas/light-metals.php