The aims and objectives of atomistic simulation are reviewed. These ideas are then illustrated by examining two different simulation studies. The first concerns transport of oxygen through a ceramic lattice. It employs energy minimisation and forces between ions are described using the ionic model. The second illustrates the evolution of a gas atom layer on a metal surface. This simulation is based on a cellular automata and forces are described using a short-range model. The results of both simulation studies emphasise the role that defects play in controlling the properties and structures of materials.
If there is such a persona as 'the metallurgical hero', Professor William Chandler Roberts-Austen is its epitome. As just one example of the many areas of research to which he made major contributions, is his work on the accurate quantitative measurement of solid state diffusion in metals, decades before anyone else. This led to his discovery that diffusion in solids is strongly temperature dependent, and slower than diffusion in liquids by orders of magnitude. His view of molecular motion in solids allowed him to develop an advanced understanding of what we now call diffusion controlled phase transformations.However, not only was he a man of science but he had a strong interest in the metallurgical arts. At a time when Japonisme and its art-styles were in vogue in Europe and America, and new metals such as aluminium were just coming into use, he played a significant role in fostering interaction between the sciences and the arts, and between the West and Asia. Roberts-Austen also had an abiding love for the Royal School of Mines, and he connected all aspects of his life to it as an institution.
The basic thermodynamics and kinetics of extractive processes were generated several decades ago and, since that time, the subject has been in relative decline as an academic subject. In contrast to this situation, materials science has flourished over the same time span during which our understanding of existing materials and new materials has dramatically increased. Many of these developments can be used to great effect to improve existing extraction processes that, in turn, can offer new ways of synthesising novel materials. Examples will be given from the titanium, aluminium and ferroalloy industries where the structure of oxides, electrochemical properties and intercalation behaviour can lead to new processes.
This paper outlines the business realities that all structural metals companies face in their long term, chronically oversupplied, slowly growing markets. Potential strategies that might be followed are outlined together with the implications for R&D, materials scientists and universities.Metals manufacturing is a commodity business and should be managed as such. Developing the marketplace is different and the opportunities are now potentially more exciting than anything that has gone before. Innovation is key to being able to do business completely differently and so creating a new business model. This requires combining the revolution in telecoms and IT with all aspects of the company's knowledge base, as well as product development and systems engineering to provide new and valuable services for customers and consumers. A much greater, more sustainable growth in revenues and profits can be achieved in this way than has been achieved by most companies over the last two decades.Done well, the impact can be the equivalent of the Toyota Manufacturing System that has driven Toyota's industry leadership position for the last 25 years.Materials scientists have a key role to play here because they are taught to integrate, being at the junction of chemistry, physics, mathematics and engineering and are IT literate. Furthermore, to achieve success, knowledge of materials not just metals will be key. So will the ability to work with business developers, business information systems thinkers, designers, marketers and experts in other companies.Universities have a key role to play in generating wealth by becoming a provider of new technologies and technology-based businesses. They need to make it as easy as it is in the USA. They also need to instil an open mind in their students and a recognition of a lifetime learning ethic.
This paper considers some of the challenges facing the nuclear industry today and how they may be overcome in future decades. Examples will be given of where materials engineering is already playing a central role in these advancing technologies and some broad-ranging conclusions are drawn.
Hume-Rothery strongly believed that electron theory would help industrial metallurgists develop new and better alloys by providing concepts that were underpinned by quantum mechanics rather than empiricism. This talk will focus on three concepts that aroused confusion and controversy amongst academics in Hume-Rothery's day: firstly, the relevance of Jones' theory of Brillouin zone touching to the experimental Hume-Rothery electron per atom rule; secondly, the relevance of the Engel-Brewer theory to the structural stability of metals and alloys; and thirdly, the relevance of Pauling's theory of resonant bonds to transition metal cohesion. I will end by asking whether the advent of quantitative electron theory will indeed help industrialists design new and better alloys in the 21st Century.
The origin of man's use of metals through mineralogical associations, and the subsequent development of metallurgical technology through history, are briefly reviewed. The rate of change in the understanding and application of metals greatly increased from straightforward observation and deduction, through alchemical experimentation and then particularly rapidly after the new atomistic philosophy and the pursuit of science for its own sake in the seventeenth century, as reflected in the foundation of the Royal Society. The development of a scientific basis for understanding during the eighteenth and particularly the nineteenth century was to result in an explosion of metallurgical technology, as for example in steelmaking, and as evidenced by the Great Exhibition and the Government's creation of the School of Mines, both in 1851, the latter to become the RSM in 1863. The initial emphasis in the School was mineralogical, chemical and analytical, an understandable bias at the time that was, however, to persist for many years. The early history of the School and the role of John Percy, the 'father' of English metallurgy as an applied science, are considered.
The human body has a limited capacity for regeneration and repair. For hundreds of years one of the principal goals of medicine has been to find artificial ways of overcoming the debilitating and disabling effects of tissue and organ damage. The very earliest attempts may date back to prehistory: remains at Palaeolithic sites and cave paintings depicting amputees suggest that early humans did attempt to tackle the problems that came about through disease 2 or trauma.(1) Pliny and other authors describe the design and use of prostheses.(2) With the arrival of the Renaissance and the re-birth of science, medicine began to make important advances in understanding the functioning of organs and how, in certain cases, artificial substitutes might be used to treat patients. Although these early attempts might appear rather crude, many prosthetics from mediaeval times onwards show high degrees of skill in both their design, use of materials and manufacture.(2) From these first attempts arose a set of principles which still apply today,(3) although advances in science and engineering allow them to be applied in a greatly more sophisticated way.
