In scientific research and industrial production, grain refinement has been widely used to control the alloying segregation and refine the coarsening columnar crystals, dendrites, intermetallic particles and eutectics. It promotes formation of the fine-grained microstructures and alloying compositions with relatively uniform spatial distribution of microconstituents, further improving the mechanical, physical and other properties in use. Up to date, grain refinement has been applied to Al, Mg, Fe, Ti, Cu, Sn, Pb, Zn and medium/high entropy alloys. The engineering technologies of grain refinement mainly include melt treatment (solidification) and deformation processing (deformation). These technologies enable grain refinement down to ultra-fine (0.1 – 1 µm) or even nanoscale (< 100 nm). Although a significant body of experimental research on grain refinement exists in the literature, the current industrially available technologies of melt treatment or deformation processing do not necessarily induce significant grain refinement. Some other factors and mechanisms underlying grain refinement might be ignored, which should be unravelled for scientists and engineers to explore further innovation.

Based on the development of grain refinement of metallic materials, the united scientific fundamentals and engineering practice will be summarized. The similarities and discrepancies of the current grain refining mechanism/theories of metallic materials will be clarified. The intrinsic physical-chemical requirements of effective grain refiners for cast metallic products will be revealed. The solid deformation-induced grain refinement will be reviewed. Finally, the engineering application of grain refinement will be explored in the metallic materials. It would enrich theoretical development of fine-grained structural tunning of metallic components, and provide fundaments for engineering applications as well.

This Research Topic will focus on frontiers in theories, modelling, and application associated with grain refinement of metallic materials (such as Al, Mg, Fe, Ti, Cu, Sn, Pb, Zn and medium/high entropy alloys). The article collection is intended to address the latest advances in fundamental innovation and engineering application. Original Research, Review, and Mini Review articles are welcome for submission, but having special themes of interests as follows:
• Dynamic nucleation of grain refinement, i.e. ultrasonic, electromagnetic, pulse current, and shearing treatments of metal melts.
• Melt inoculation of grain refinement, i.e. predicting, designing and producing new grain refiners (or master alloys) and related processing routes.
• Deformation processing of grain refinement, i.e. equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP), high pressure torsion (HPT), accumulative roll bonding (ARB), rotary swaging, twist extrusion, and etc.
• Technological innovation and corresponding application for refining engineering alloys.
• Characterization methods for revealing experimental results and theoretical mechanisms.
• Scientific and engineering development of grain refinement in various metallic materials.

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Frontiers in Materials

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