Deformation processing of metals

The control of microstructures and textures during the deformation and annealing of alloys is of great importance and has been of wide scientific interest for many years. Our understanding, however, of the plastic deformation of metals is far from complete and this is now recognized as an important limitation in developing the quantitative models for thermomechanical processing that are required by the metals industries. The development of new methods of modelling and new techniques for characterization of microstructure and texture are having an impact in this field, and it was therefore timely to hold a Discussion Meeting on deformation processing. The schematic of figure 1 gives the perspective. The physicists' dream of an ability to compute the properties of engineering materials (bottom two rows) from the nature of fundamental particles and the forces which act between them (top box) has not yet become a reality, although equilibrium properties of perfect crystals are now within their scope (second box). Materials scientists and engineers are continually striving to extract more performance from the materials they develop and use, and to do so more economically. They are prepared to start at the highest level of structure, and to combine fundamental understanding with empiricism, if it is the only way forward (with the knowledge that empiricism can be replaced by a more basic approach as this develops). This leads to the levels of structure and the numerous links between them con?