At low temperatures, monolithic bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) exhibit high strength and large elasticity limits. On the other hand, BMGs lack overall ductility due to highly localized deformation mechanisms. Recent experimental findings suggest that the problem of catastrophic failure by shear band propagation in BMGs can be mitigated by tailoring microstructural features at different length sca...

Metals can be processed to reach ultra-high strength, but usually at a drastic loss of ductility. Here, we review recent advances in overcoming this tradeoff, by purposely deploying heterogeneous nanostructures in an otherwise single-phase metal. Several structural designs are being explored, including bimodal, harmonic, lamellar, gradient, domain-dispersed, and hierarchical nanostructures. The...

Layered Ti-Al metal composite (LMC) fabricated by hot-pressing and hot-rolling process displays higher ductility than that of both components. In this paper, a combination of digital image correlation (DIC) and X-ray tomography revealed that strain delocalization and constrained crack distribution are the origin of extraordinary tensile ductility. Strain delocalization was derived from the tran...

The processing of metals through the application of severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques provides the potential for achieving exceptional grain refinement leading to ultrafine-grained (UFG) materials in bulk solids. These materials generally exhibit high strength but very limited ductility at room temperature (RT) leading to the so-called paradox of strength and ductility. The recent dev...

The authors propose a design philosophy for steel buildings in moderate seismic regions that draws on familiar concepts of ductility and capacity design, but also integrates the concepts of reserve capacity, elastic flexibility and strength to broaden the field of design possibilities. The paper discusses structural systems representing each of these concepts: Moderate-Ductility Concentrically-...

Widespread adoption of metallic glasses (MGs) in applications motivated by high strength and elasticity combined with plastic-like processing has been stymied by their lack of tensile ductility. One emerging strategy to couple the attractive properties of MGs with resistance to failure by shear localization is to employ sub-micron sample or feature length scales, although conflicting results sh...

Many traditional approaches for strengthening steels typically come at the expense of useful ductility, a dilemma known as strength-ductility trade-off. New metallurgical processing might offer the possibility of overcoming this. Here we report that austenitic 316L stainless steels additively manufactured via a laser powder-bed-fusion technique exhibit a combination of yield strength and tensil...

Strengthening materials traditionally involves the controlled creation of internal defects and boundaries so as to obstruct dislocation motion. Such strategies invariably compromise ductility, the ability of the material to deform, stretch, or change shape permanently without breaking. Here, we outline an approach to optimize strength and ductility by identifying three essential structural char...

The seismic performance of RC columns could be significantly improved by continuous spiral reinforcement as a result of its adequate ductility and energy dissipation capacity. Due to post-earthquake brittle failure observations in beam-column connections, the seismic behaviour of such connections could greatly be improved by simultaneous application of this method in both beams and columns. In ...