Current Trends in Materials Research: Material Properties, Microscopic and Morphological Characterization

Progress in materials science and engineering is closely related to material properties. It is because materials' performance is closely related to the microstructure. Therefore at present, many modern microscopic studying techniques are used in materials science. Those methods have evolved over decades, or even centuries, from quite rudimentary tools to highly sophisticated equipment. They are necessary for both the quality control of products and the development of new materials. The technical context of measuring materials' properties ranges from fundamental science to reasonably practical "real-world" field tests that can predict performance and—one hopes—prevent machines components failure. In this book, contributions on the following topics were particularly encouraged: optical and mechanical characterization of coarse-grained and nanostructured materials; correlative analysis of microscopic and mechanical properties of surface engineered materials; properties of a new generation of biomorphic materials; validation of the materials' performance in "real-world" tests.