Mechanical properties articles from across Nature Portfolio

Lattice stability related to the structural response is the basis for understanding mechanical and physical behavior of crystalline solids. Here, the authors show a manifestation of elastic instability in high-entropy alloys via elastic strain induced amorphization.

Microballistic impact testing at strain rates greater than 10⁶ s⁻¹ shows that pure metals, including copper, gold and titanium, become stronger with increasing temperature.

Adding homogeneously dispersed oxide nanoparticles to aluminium pushes its high-temperature strength up to 500 °C.

In a multi-principal-element VCoNi alloy, premature necking during Lüders banding has been harnessed to produce rapid dislocation multiplication, leading to both forest hardening and hardening induced by regions of local chemical order. The result is ductility of 20% and a yield strength of 2 GPa, during room-temperature and cryogenic deformation.

The shape and trajectory of a crack plays a crucial role in material fracture. High-precision experiments now directly capture this phenomenon, unveiling the intricate 3D nature of cracks.

A recent publication in Nature Communications describes the use of cameras on hovering drones to detect submillimetre displacements of bridge spans.

When cracks creep forward in our three-dimensional world, they do so because of accompanying cracks racing perpendicular to the main direction of motion with almost sonic speed. Clever experiments have now directly demonstrated this phenomenon.

An article in Nature Communications reports 3D-printed personalized liver models that can self-heal and are as soft as real livers.