โ Scribed by H.R. Shercliff; N.A. Fleck
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
to honour Mike Ashby in his 65th year. Mike has been a pioneer in many branches of materials science and engineering, moving from fundamental electron microscopy to modelling and to engineering design. In keeping with the spirit of his work the Symposium was entitled ``Materials Engineering ร A Forward Look''. Three broad themes capture most of his research activities of the past 45 years, and these formed the basis of the meeting: Micromechanical Modelling, Process Modelling and Design Methods. The presentations drew on past and current contributions that Mike has made in these ยฎelds, but also identiยฎed the rich potential of these research ยฎelds. This special issue contains the keynote papers from the Symposium.
Mike's ยฎrst major contribution to materials was his doctoral thesis work on dislocation mechanisms in dispersion hardened metals, one of the early signiยฎcant studies to exploit transmission electron microscopy, and coupled to the elegant, clear modelling of a problem, which was to become an Ashby trademark. Capturing the essence of dislocation and diusion based material behaviour in simple models was the fundamental basis of Mike's work on deformation mechanisms, leading to the ยฎrst of the ``Ashby maps'', another trademark. Maps for fracture mechanisms, the visco-elasticity of polymers and fatigue and wear were to follow. Through his work on the deformation and fracture of the materials of the Earth's crust, and of ice, Mike also acquired international recognition in the geophysics community.
The engineering aspects of materials steadily assumed greater importance in Mike's work, through modelling of manufacturing processes and modelling of the micromechanics of deformation and failure in many diverse materials. Process models for laser treatment, welding, sintering and HIPing required the same skills and judgement, to couple processing conditions to microstructure and property evolution. Through a whole suite of process maps, and software, Mike showed the emerging importance of modelling in optimisation and development of materials processing ร a lesson still slowly being learnt in many parts of industry. In micromechanics of materials, combined experiment, modelling and mapping led to contributions to failure of polymer and ceramic matrix composites, toughening of ceramics, and the establishment of a comprehensive understanding of cellular solids ร the last leading to further diversiยฎcation into woods and other natural materials. And in recent years, Mike's earlier work on cellular solids has had a revival through the development of metal foams and lattice materials.
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