Inaugural lecture - Johan Ahlström IMS

Title of the lecture: Characterising metal performance for demanding applications

Abstract:
Metals are commonly used in many everyday products,  the design of which requires only a few basic parameters, such as the Young’s modulus and yield stress. However, metals are also crucial for the function of highly loaded components where their properties are challenged and sometimes altered during use. My research focuses on the performance of metals in such challenging applications. One example is railways, where the steel in the rails and wheels is not only stressed to its limits, but also undergoes repeated deformation and is exposed to frictional heating. Another example is gas turbines and other combustion engines, where stresses arise from the repeated thermal loading. In the seminar, I will present these and other challenges and discuss how we can make useful predictions using the combined toolboxes available in the Materials Science and Applied Mechanics research fields.