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Seventy-five years of superplasticity: historic developments and new opportunities

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Abstract

On this seventy-fifth anniversary of the first scientific report of true superplastic flow, it is appropriate both to look back and examine the major developments that established the present understanding of superplasticity and to look to the future to the new opportunities that are made possible by new processing techniques, based on the application of severe plastic deformation, that permit the production of fully dense bulk materials with submicrometer or nanometer grain sizes. This review proposes a minor modification to the present definition of superplasticity, it provides an overview of the current understanding of the flow of superplastic metals and ceramics and then it examines, and gives examples of, the new possibilities that are now available for achieving exceptional superplastic behavior.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of the United States under Grant No. DMR-0855009.

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  1. Departments of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-1453, USA

    Terence G. Langdon

  2. Materials Research Group, School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Terence G. Langdon

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Langdon, T.G. Seventy-five years of superplasticity: historic developments and new opportunities. J Mater Sci 44, 5998–6010 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-009-3780-5

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