Hongbiao Dong

Professor
Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering
University of Leicester, UK

Biography: Prof Dong is a Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, Research Chair of Royal Academy of Engineering, and Director of EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Transformation of Metals Industry, Deputy Head of School of Engineering at University of Leicester. He obtained his BEng and Meng in Metallurgy from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, PhD in Materials Science from the University of Oxford. He has made pioneering and significant contributions in development of solidification modelling and its application in casting and welding. His work on modelling the Columnar-to-Equiaxed transition in metal solidification has far-reaching influence in both theory and industrial application. This underpinning work laid down the concepts of subsequent work on multi-scale, multi-physics modelling of casting and welding to allows industry to design and optimise casting and welding processes. He explored the application of neutron and synchrotron technologies in characterising the evolution of residual stress and grain structures in during manufacturing processes. His work has been exploited in various sectors, including in aerospace by Rolls-Royce, energy by the Welding Institute and steel by Materials Processing Institute. He has played a key role in establishing international research partnerships between UK and China, India and South Africa. 

Invited Lecture: The Application of Diffraction-Based Neutron Techniques on the Study of Ni-Based Superalloys

Abstract: This talk presents the utilization of diffraction-based neutron techniques to investigate the microstructural properties and behaviors of Ni-based superalloys. Neutron techniques provide unique insights into the atomic-scale structure, phase transformations, and internal stresses within these complex alloys. Neutron diffraction, with its phase and grain-specific characteristics, enables the determination of lattice spacing in differently oriented grains of each constituent phase. This capability allows for the detailed study of the micro-mechanical response of different grains in both the strengthening phase and the matrix phase of Ni-based superalloys under tension. The evolution of lattice spacing reveals that the shearing mechanism is predominant and that the magnitude of strengthening is dependent on precipitate orientation.Furthermore, diffraction-based neutron imaging, specifically Bragg Edge Imaging, is employed to investigate mosaicity in directionally solidified Ni-based superalloys. Mosaicity, arising from the formation of low-angle grain boundaries, has garnered significant attention in the study of single crystal Ni-based superalloys. Using crystallographic data obtained from Bragg Edge Imaging, it has been established that lateral macro-segregation induces small angle grain boundaries, leading to mosaicity within single crystal Ni-based superalloys.