Multi-scale design and analyses of advanced materials: Experimental approaches

When a 100-tonne steel forging die fails during industrial processing; the root causes are often localised to small length scales. Advanced materials therefore need to be designed at the characteristic material length scales; incorporating environmental considerations such as local defects or temperature, amongst many others. This talk highlights two recent examples of project work led by Dr. Best with industrial partners. The first focuses on the bottom-up design of ceramic thin-film coatings using nano- and micro-mechanical approaches, where high-temperature fracture toughness measurements were primarily utilised to design multi-layered protective coatings with improved lifetimes for steel forging dies. The second addresses the top-down analysis of a 3D-printed bulk metallic glass, where the connection between bulk toughness and local short range order was linked through in-situ micro-pillar compression. In both examples, the interplay between structure-property relations at multiple length scales is emphasised.