What is going on in magnesium alloys？

China has been developed into one of the most active regions in terms of both fundamental and applied research on magnesium （Mg） and its alloys in the world from a solid base laid by its prominent metallurgist and materials scientists over the past decades. Nowadays, a large number of young-generation researchers have been inspired by their predecessors and become the key participants in the fields of Mg alloys, which consequently led to the establishment of China Youth Scholar Society for Magnesium Alloys Research in 2015. Since then, the first two China Youth Scholars Symposiums on Mg Alloys Research had been held at Harbin （2015） and Chongqing （2016） China, respectively. A number of crucial research inter- ests related to fundamental and applied Mg research were discussed at the conferences and summarized in this short perspective, aiming to boost far-reaching initiatives for development of new Mg-based materials to satisfy the requirements for a broad range of industrial employments. Herein, four main aspects are included as follows： i） Plastic deformation mechanism and strengthening strategy, ii） Design and development of new Mg-based materials, iii） Key service properties, and iv） New processing technologies.

Effect of lattice distortion on solid solution strengthening of BCC high-entropy alloys

An analytical model is established to study the influence of lattice distortion and fraction of Hf on the yield strength of the BCC TiNbTaZrHfx multi-component high entropy alloys （HEAs）. Meanwhile, the mechanism of solid solution strengthening caused by lattice distortion is also discussed in the HEA. The distorted unit cell is introduced to indicate the lattice distortion effects induced by the differences of the atomic size and shear modulus by doping other elements in Ti-based metal. The results show that the calculated values of the alloying yield strength considering the path of least resistance are obtained with regard to various grain sizes for the equiatomic TiNbTaZrHf HEA, which is well in line with the experimental results. Furthermore, it is predicted that the alloying yield strength is the largest value in the case of the same grain size for the Hf atomic fraction of 0.122. The meaningful modeling could provide a theoretical method to investigate the yield strength and alloying design of other BCC HEAs in the future.

Charting the ‘composition–strength’ space for novel austenitic,martensitic and ferritic creep resistant steels

We report results of a large computational ＇alloy by design＇ study, in which the ＇chemical composition-mechanical strength＇ space is explored for austenitic, ferritic and martensitic creep resistant steels. The approach used allows simultaneously optimization of alloy composition and processing parameters based on the integration of thermodynamic, thermo-kinetics and a genetic algorithm optimization route. The nature of the optimisation depends on both the intended matrix（ferritic, martensitic or austenitic） and the desired precipitation family. The models are validated by analysing reported strengths of existing steels. All newly designed alloys are predicted to outperform existing high end reference grades.