Advanced Lightweight Materials for Elevated Temperature Applications

Engineering sectors such as aerospace, automotive, energy, and defence increasingly require materials that combine low density with reliable mechanical performance at elevated temperatures. Conventional lightweight metals (e.g., Al and Mg) are typically limited to service temperatures below ~300 °C, while nickel-based superalloys provide outstanding high-temperature strength but impose a major weight penalty. This performance gap is accelerating the development of advanced lightweight, high-temperature material systems, including titanium alloys, advanced Al/Mg systems, lightweight high-entropy alloys, and high-temperature composites enabled by progress in alloy design, microstructural control, and environmental protection strategies.

This Research Topic focuses on the mechanics-informed design, processing, characterization, modeling, and performance of lightweight materials operating in demanding thermo-mechanical environments. Particular emphasis is placed on how microstructure, phase stability, deformation mechanisms, creep/fatigue, and oxidation/corrosion govern durability from intermediate to very high temperatures (application-dependent). The topic explicitly welcomes contributions that integrate constitutive theory, computational mechanics, data-driven modeling, and simulation-enabled structural validation, linking material behavior to component-scale performance and lifetime.

Goal

To advance lightweight material solutions that maintain thermal and mechanical stability at elevated temperatures while enabling substantial weight reduction compared with conventional high-temperature alloys, supported by experiments, mechanics-based modeling, and structure-level assessment.

Scope

Submissions are welcome on (including experimental, numerical, and combined approaches):
o Lightweight high-temperature materials and systems
o Titanium alloys (near-α, α+β, metastable β), advanced Al/Mg concepts for elevated temperature use
o Lightweight high-entropy alloys and compositionally complex alloys
o Metal-, ceramic-, and carbon-matrix composites; hybrid and architected material systems
o Deformation, damage, and degradation mechanisms (solid/structural mechanics emphasis)
o Microstructural stability and phase transformations under thermo-mechanical loading
o Creep, thermo-mechanical fatigue, dwell-fatigue, crack initiation/propagation
o Environmental effects: oxidation/corrosion, hot-salt attack, and coating–substrate interactions
o Mechanistic links between microstructure → constitutive response → structural integrity/life
o Modeling, simulation, and data-driven methods (explicitly expanded)
o Constitutive modeling for temperature-dependent plasticity, viscoplasticity, creep, and damage
o Multi-scale and ICME approaches (microstructure-sensitive modeling; homogenization; phase-field, CPFE, DDD where appropriate)
o Structural mechanics and computational methods: FEA-based life prediction, crack growth modeling, fracture/creep–fatigue interaction, uncertainty quantification
o Machine learning / AI-assisted material modeling (e.g., surrogate models for constitutive laws, inverse identification from experiments, microstructure property mapping)
o Model validation, calibration strategies, and reproducible benchmarking datasets/workflows
o Processing, manufacturing, and optimization
o Alloy/composite design strategies; reinforcement and architecture concepts
o Additive manufacturing and advanced processing routes; scalable and cost-effective manufacturing
o Process–structure–property–performance relationships and optimization under constraints
o Applications and component-level validation
o Turbines/propulsion, automotive hot-zone components, energy conversion hardware
o Hypersonic/space structures and thermal protection-related structural elements
o Demonstrations that connect lab-scale results to structural design allowables, performance envelopes, or service-relevant lifing

Article Types

Original Research and Review articles are invited, and (where appropriate) brief application-focused studies that demonstrate clear mechanics-based insight and/or validation.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Ti alloys, High Entropy Alloys, Metal Matrix Composites, Wear, Microstructure, SEM, XRD.

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.