Microstructural Engineering and Intelligent Design of High-performance Metallic Systems

Metallic materials for extreme environments are central to the reliability and efficiency of energy, aerospace, transportation, chemical processing, and other critical technologies. Components exposed to elevated or cryogenic temperatures, corrosive media, irradiation, wear, and complex mechanical loading often experience interacting degradation processes, including creep, fatigue, oxidation, corrosion, embrittlement, and environmentally assisted cracking. Current research increasingly demonstrates that processing routes, composition, phase stability, microstructural architecture, and service conditions jointly govern material performance. Advances in additive manufacturing, thermomechanical processing, surface engineering, high-throughput experimentation, computational materials science, and in situ characterization are enabling more precise control of these relationships. However, challenges remain in transferring laboratory-scale results to service-relevant conditions, predicting long-term damage under coupled environments, and developing interpretable models that can support robust alloy design. Further investigation is needed to connect processing and microstructural evolution with degradation mechanisms and component-level reliability across diverse metallic systems.This Research Topic aims to advance the understanding and design of high-performance metallic materials for demanding service conditions. It will address how alloy chemistry, processing history, microstructural features, and environmental exposure influence mechanical behaviour, damage accumulation, and long-term performance. This Research Topic will also examine how experimental methods, computational simulations, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and explainable AI can be integrated to accelerate materials discovery, improve property prediction, identify governing mechanisms, and enable reliable design strategies. Attention will be given to approaches that combine mechanistic understanding with data-driven methodologies to develop metallic systems that are safer, more efficient, durable, and adaptable to next-generation applications.To gather further insights into the development and performance of metallic materials exposed to extreme thermal, chemical, mechanical, and environmental conditions, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:· Alloy design and composition optimization for extreme environments· Superalloys, advanced steels, titanium alloys, high-entropy alloys, and other emerging metallic systems· Microstructural engineering and phase stability· Additive manufacturing and advanced processing technologies· Thermomechanical processing and heat-treatment design· Mechanical behaviour at elevated and cryogenic temperatures· Creep, fatigue, fracture, wear, and damage-tolerance assessment· Corrosion, oxidation, hydrogen embrittlement, and environmentally assisted degradation· Coupled thermal, mechanical, chemical, irradiation, and multiaxial loading effects· Surface modification, coatings, and protective architectures· In situ and advanced characterization of structure–property relationships· Computational materials science, multiscale modelling, and digital twins· Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and explainable AI for materials design· Physics-informed and uncertainty-aware prediction of material performance· Data-driven lifetime assessment, reliability, and failure prediction· Integration of experimental, computational, and data-driven approaches for materials qualification and scale-up Topic editors: Muhammad Ishtiaq, ADIL MANSOOR, Saif Haider Kayani Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85661/microstructural-engineering-and-intelligent-design-of-high-performance-metallic-systems