There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

다중혈관 관상동맥 환자에서 y-문합을 이용하여 양쪽 내흉동맥만을 사용한 우회술의 조기 성적

This article presents an overview of the developments in stainless steels made since the 1990s. Some of the new applications that involve the use of stainless steel are also introduced. A brief introduction to the various classes of stainless steels, their precipitate phases and the status quo of their production around the globe is given first. The advances in a variety of subject areas that have been made recently will then be presented. These recent advances include (1) new findings on the various precipitate phases (the new J phase, new orientation relationships, new phase diagram for the Fe–Cr system, etc.); (2) new suggestions for the prevention/mitigation of the different problems and new methods for their detection/measurement and (3) new techniques for surface/bulk property enhancement (such as laser shot peening, grain boundary engineering and grain refinement). Recent developments in topics like phase prediction, stacking fault energy, superplasticity, metadynamic recrystallisation and the calculation of mechanical properties are introduced, too. In the end of this article, several new applications that involve the use of stainless steels are presented. Some of these are the use of austenitic stainless steels for signature authentication (magnetic recording), the utilisation of the cryogenic magnetic transition of the sigma phase for hot spot detection (the Sigmaplugs), the new Pt-enhanced radiopaque stainless steel (PERSS) coronary stents and stainless steel stents that may be used for magnetic drug targeting. Besides recent developments in conventional stainless steels, those in the high-nitrogen, low-Ni (or Ni-free) varieties are also introduced. These recent developments include new methods for attaining very high nitrogen contents, new guidelines for alloy design, the merits/demerits associated with high nitrogen contents, etc.

Recent developments in stainless steels

Magnesium alloys have received an increasing interest in the past 12 years for potential applications in the automotive, aircraft, aerospace, and electronic industries. Many of these alloys are strong because of solid-state precipitates that are produced by an age-hardening process. Although some strength improvements of existing magnesium alloys have been made and some novel alloys with improved strength have been developed, the strength level that has been achieved so far is still substantially lower than that obtained in counterpart aluminum alloys. Further improvements in the alloy strength require a better understanding of the structure, morphology, orientation of precipitates, effects of precipitate morphology, and orientation on the strengthening and microstructural factors that are important in controlling the nucleation and growth of these precipitates. In this review, precipitation in most precipitation-hardenable magnesium alloys is reviewed, and its relationship with strengthening is examined. It is demonstrated that the precipitation phenomena in these alloys, especially in the very early stage of the precipitation process, are still far from being well understood, and many fundamental issues remain unsolved even after some extensive and concerted efforts made in the past 12 years. The challenges associated with precipitation hardening and age hardening are identified and discussed, and guidelines are outlined for the rational design and development of higher strength, and ultimately ultrahigh strength, magnesium alloys via precipitation hardening.

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Su-Ming Zhu

Papers

Enhanced age hardening response and creep resistance of Mg-Gd alloys containing Zn

On the corrosion of binary magnesium-rare earth alloys

The effect of alloy composition on the microstructure and tensile properties of binary Mg-rare earth alloys

The relationship between microstructure and creep resistance in die-cast magnesium-rare earth alloys

Precipitation-hardened Mg-Ca-Zn alloys with superior creep resistance