A short description of this session will be provided soon.

This special session will delve into the latest breakthroughs in metal additive manufacturing, encompassing both fusion-based and solid-state techniques. We will explore technologies that rely on feedstock melting and material fusion, as well as those that induce bonding through kinetic energy and plastic deformation. Given the multidisciplinary nature of this subject, we will consider the impacts of process parameters, material responses, surface characteristics, microstructural aspects, and geometrical features. The applications of these technologies span across various sectors, including space, aerospace, automotive, building, and biomedical industries.

The goal of this session is to create an international platform for academic and industrial contributors to share ideas on recent innovations and advancements in various AM technologies, and to discuss future opportunities and applications. We welcome contributions from both experimental studies and numerical developments. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Cold spray additive manufacturing
• Binder-jet additive manufacturing
• Laser/Electron beam-powder bed additive manufacturing
• Directed Energy deposition technologies
• Post-processing technologies for additive manufacturing
• AM technologies for repair and geometrical restorations

We look forward to your participation and contributions to this exciting session.
 

The proposed session will focus on cementitious and concrete-based systems as a major engineering domain where failures are often driven by coupled degradation mechanisms (thermal loading, corrosion, cracking, impact/blast, fatigue, environmental exposure) and where circular economy strategies can simultaneously enhance performance and reduce environmental footprint.

The session will bring together contributions on low-carbon binders and high-performance composites (e.g., geopolymers/alkali-activated materials, UHPC/UHPFRC and hybrid cementitious composites), and on resource-efficient concrete technologies using construction & demolition waste (CDW), quarry/industrial by-products and other secondary raw materials. Emphasis will be placed on how these materials can be engineered to prevent failure under demanding actions relevant to resilient infrastructure: high temperature and fire, impact/blast and dynamic loading, durability and multi-physical degradation, and interlayer/interface integrity (including additive manufacturing / 3D printing).

A key feature of the session is the integration of testing–modelling–data: advanced experimental characterization (including full-field methods and fracture/fatigue assessment), multi-scale/multi-physics simulation, and data-driven approaches (AI/ML) for mixture optimisation, performance prediction, uncertainty quantification, and circularity/LCA-informed decision-making.

Indicative subtopics (non-exclusive):

• Geopolymers/alkali-activated binders from wastes and by-products; high-temperature behaviour and fire safety
• UHPC/UHPFRC and hybrid laminates for retrofit and extreme actions (impact/blast/fire)
• Recycled aggregates and CDW valorisation: durability, processing, and quality assurance
• 3D printing/additive manufacturing of cementitious materials: rheology, buildability, interlayer failure
• AI/ML for mix design and strength/durability prediction; LCA/CE-driven design and optimisation

Understanding and mitigating the degradation of materials and structures exposed to aggressive environments is a critical challenge across many engineering sectors. This session focuses on the fundamental and applied aspects of corrosion, wear, and tribology that control the durability, reliability, and lifetime of materials and surfaces operating under mechanical and environmental loading.

Topics include corrosion mechanisms and kinetics in aggressive environments, localized corrosion processes, high-temperature and marine corrosion, corrosion of steel in concrete and infrastructure durability, corrosion of biomaterials, as well as stress corrosion cracking, corrosion fatigue, and hydrogen-related degradation. Contributions addressing corrosion protection strategies, inhibitors, advanced coatings, surface engineering, electrochemical characterization techniques, and non-destructive evaluation methods are particularly encouraged.

In addition, the session highlights advances in tribology and wear science, including sliding, abrasive, fretting, erosive, and high-temperature wear, along with tribological behavior in lubricated and unlubricated systems. Emphasis is placed on understanding wear mechanisms and system dynamics, as well as on advanced tribo-characterization and wear testing methods. Special focus is given to coupled degradation phenomena. such as tribocorrosion, erosion–corrosion, and corrosive wear, which are increasingly relevant in applications ranging from energy and marine systems to aerospace, infrastructure, and biomedical devices.

Fracture-mechanical properties of materials in micro- and nanoscale dimensions have become an important area of fundamental research, including the development and introduction of new techniques for micro- and nanomechanical testing as well as for high-resolution 3D imaging of features in opaque objects. At the same time, there is an increasing need for industry to establish new risk-mitigation strategies based on the understanding of microcrack evolution at small length scales that can cause catastrophic failure in 3D-structured systems and materials, such as leading-edge integrated circuits, advanced battery electrodes, and composites. New design concepts for bio-inspired materials, crack-stop engineering, and the controlled steering of microcracks into regions with high fracture toughness will be discussed.

Sub-topics of the session will be:

• Materials design and modeling/simulation
• Micromechanical tests, microcrack growth, fatigue in metals and composites
• Microcrack imaging using microscopy and tomography techniques
• Interaction of microcracks with materials’ microstructure, energy dissipation mechanisms
• Controlled microcrack steering into toughened regions
• Design of crack-stop structures
• Size and microstructure-dependent metal plasticity
• Natural systems and bio-inspired materials.
   

Impact and crashworthiness are two critical aspects of composite structures, approached in contrasting ways. Impacts, whether high-energy or low-energy, can lead to failures in these materials. Therefore, it is essential to understand these phenomena in order to improve design requirements and enhance the overall performance of composite structures. Conversely, crashworthiness refers to the effective use of material failure as a beneficial mechanism, allowing for the dissipation of impact energy to protect occupants or goods within a vehicle.

This session will explore innovative research, methodologies, and applications related to the performance of composite materials and structures in impact and crash scenarios. The session particularly encourages contributions that focus on advancements in energy absorption mechanisms, progressive damage evolution, high-rate material behaviour, and failure mode characterisation. Case studies from the automotive, aerospace, and emerging mobility sectors are welcome, alongside fundamental academic investigations. Additionally, experimental, analytical, and/or numerical studies are welcome
 

ICEAF IX conference invites researchers, engineers, and academics to contribute to a special session dedicated to exploring the applications of data analytics and artificial intelligence, specifically machine learning, in engineering. This special session aims to bring together experts from academia and industry to share insights, methodologies, and advancements in leveraging data-driven approaches for enhancing materials design, predicting fatigue and fracture behavior, and estimating the properties of engineering materials. Special session will provide a platform for discussions on the latest advancements and future directions in this rapidly evolving field.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Data-driven materials design and optimization
• Predictive modeling for fatigue and fracture analysis
• Estimation of materials' behavior and properties through machine learning
• Novel applications of data analytics in engineering alloys and metals
• Multiscale approaches integrating data analytics for mechanical behavior understanding
• Virtual testing, digital twins, and AI implementation in materials engineering
• Methodological frameworks for machine learning applications in engineering

During service life composite materials may exhibit highly dynamic loading events, such as foreign object impact or crash situations. Under these conditions, damage may initiate and propagate under dynamic conditions. This session collects the latest advancements in understanding and describing dynamic fracture of composite materials. Contributions in the following domains are therefore sought:

• Experimental methods for measuring high-rate material properties of composites
• Modeling approaches for describing fracture in composites under high-rate loading conditions
• Testing and modeling of strectures under crash and impact loads (e.g. hail strike, bird strike, …)

As Confucius noted, failing to correct a mistake is a second error in itself. Failure analysis provides the essential bridge between damage and prevention by tracing progression to identify root causes. By examining physical evidence, engineers can make informed decisions to avert future failure.

Typical techniques such as metallography or fractography reveal microstructure-failure correlations or reflect the actual fracture pattern and existing damage conditions. Beyond these classical methods, further techniques have emerged in recent years, becoming increasingly common and providing valuable new information or making the failure analysis process more effective.

The topics of this session are:

• damage cases from various material categories and applications
• quantitative fractography in Failure Analysis
• microstructure-failure correlations
• introduction of automated procedures and AI support

The occurrence of failures has a major impact on quality, production and environmental health and safety areas of human and industrial activity. Understanding, analyzing and preventing failures result undoubtedly in the reinforcement of expertise and deep knowledge that constitute significant contributors of continuous quality improvement and society benefit.  The scope of this session aims to address and report several paradigms and case studies, where the investigation of fracture and failure of materials and components lead to the exploration and understanding of the failure process as a series of logical/natural stages and interactions of microstructure, properties, processing and environmental/operation conditions, exhibiting a “cause-and-effect” type relationships. The study areas of the Session are mainly focused (but not limited) on critical industrial sectors, such as metallurgical, mining, chemical, manufacturing and automotive. 
The following (but not limited) representative topics are included in the

Session: 

1. Failure and microstructure relationships
2. Genesis of damage at nano-, micro- and meso-scale level
3. Fractography as failure investigation method
4. Texture-failure interactions  
5. Modeling of degradation processes with experimental validation
6. Failures in modern manufacturing
7. Innovative approaches in failure investigation and failure analysis (e.g. AI, machine learning, etc.)
8. Corrosion and environmentally assisted damage
9. Degradation of historical materials and components
10. Process based philosophy and lessons learned approach
     

Fiber-reinforced composite structures are well established in lightweight engineering applications across aerospace, automotive, and marine industries. However, understanding and predicting failure in such structures is still challenging and requires a thorough knowledge of the underlying damage mechanisms as well as reliable analytical and numerical modelling tools. This session focuses on experimental, analytical, and computational approaches to characterize failure initiation and progression in composite structures and their joints, including damage at the ply and laminate level. Contributions addressing damage-tolerant design strategies, tailored laminate architectures or crack arrest features, are equally welcome. Work linking experimental validation with modelling efforts, as well as contributions considering the use of conventional fibers (carbon or glass) and natural fibers (flax, hemp, jute) from a sustainability perspective, is especially encouraged.

Failures in tailing dams, underground works, and water reservoirs represent some of the most critical risks in mining and large infrastructure projects. These failures may arise from flooding events, but also from geotechnical, structural, operational, and monitoring deficiencies, as well as from uncertainty in material properties and design assumptions.
This session focuses on failure mechanisms, engineering analysis of real case failures, and prevention and mitigation strategies, emphasizing risk informed design, monitoring, and decision-making.

Indicative (Non-Exhaustive) Topics

• Failure mechanisms in tailing dams (stability, seepage, liquefaction, operational failures)
• Failures in underground works (mines, tunnels, caverns): collapses, groundwater inflow, rock mass degradation
• Water reservoirs, dams and pit lakes: structural and geotechnical failures, operational mismanagement
• Coupled geotechnical, hydrogeological, structural failure processes
• Uncertainty, variability, and risk assessment in infrastructure safety
• Monitoring, instrumentation, and early-warning systems
• Design, retrofitting, and prevention measures
• Geostatistics & uncertainty quantification in risk assessment
• Lessons learned from historical failures and near-miss events
• Standards, guidelines, and best practices

The session will be a focused discussion on life prediction approaches and models for multiaxial fatigue, fatigue under variable amplitude loading, and fatigue of gradient materials. It will cover both the fundamental fatigue mechanisms and engineering prediction approaches for real world applications.
 

Fatigue-driven degradation remains one of the leading causes of structural failure in engineering systems, especially in polymer and composite materials used in various applications including aerospace, automotive, wind energy, and civil infrastructure. Unlike metals, polymers and fiber-reinforced composites exhibit complex time-dependent, viscoelastic, and anisotropic fatigue behaviors governed by microstructural evolution, environmental interactions, and multiscale damage mechanisms.

This special session aims to bring together researchers and industry experts to discuss recent advances in experimental characterization,  and multiscale modeling for polymers and composite materials under cyclic loading and addressing lifetime prediction, and structural health monitoring. Topics of interest include crack initiation and propagation, fatigue-environment coupling, high- and low-cycle fatigue behavior, fatigue in additive-manufactured polymers, hybrid composites, durability under thermo-mechanical loading, and innovative design strategies for enhanced fatigue resistance.
 

Additive manufacturing (AM) continues to transform the design and production of materials and components, enabling complex geometries, lightweight structures, and bespoke designs that were previously impossible to achieve with traditional manufacturing methods. However, these new possibilities also bring unique challenges in understanding and predicting the fracture and failure behavior of AM materials, components, and the novel structures and metamaterials being developed for advanced applications.

This special session will focus on the fracture and failure mechanisms of additively manufactured materials, components, structures, and metamaterials. It will explore both the scientific foundations and the practical challenges associated with ensuring the structural integrity of AM-produced parts. 

Topics of interest include:
 

• Fracture mechanics of AM materials and structures: Investigating the influence of microstructure, defects, and residual stresses on fracture behavior, with a particular focus on the unique characteristics of AM-produced parts.
• Failure analysis in AM components: Exploring the different failure modes (e.g., brittle, ductile, fatigue) in various AM processes such as powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition, and material extrusion, and their implications for part reliability.
• Fatigue and durability of AM components/structures: Examining the performance of AM components under cyclic loading and long-term use, and developing strategies to improve the durability of additively manufactured parts.
• Designing for failure resistance in AM structures: Best practices for improving the strength and resilience of AM parts, including material selection, process optimization, and post-processing techniques.
• Metamaterials and innovative structures in AM: The role of advanced materials and structures, such as lattice structures and metamaterials, in improving performance and creating lightweight, high-strength components. Understanding how the unique properties of these materials impact fracture and failure behavior.
• Non-destructive testing (NDT) and in-situ monitoring for AM parts: Investigating the latest techniques for detecting and characterizing defects, cracks, and fractures in AM components during production and service life.
• Case studies and real-world applications: Insights from industries such as aerospace, automotive, biomedical, and energy, where AM materials and metamaterials are being integrated into high-performance and safety-critical components.
• Optimisation and improvements based on case failures identification, 
• other related.

The session aims to bring together researchers, engineers, and industry experts to share the latest advancements in the understanding of fracture and failure mechanisms in AM materials and components, with a special emphasis on the challenges and opportunities presented by new structures and metamaterials. Attendees will gain valuable insights into the state-of-the-art techniques for enhancing the reliability, performance, and safety of additively manufactured parts in demanding applications.

We invite contributions that present new experimental data, theoretical models, or innovative design strategies aimed at improving the fracture resistance and performance of AM structures and metamaterials, as well as addressing the growing need for reliable, high-performance AM components in industry.
 

Advanced materials have an increasing role in engineering, in various industrial applications. These materials operate in severe environments, withstand complex multi-axial loading conditions. Fracture of advanced materials is a major problem that may occur inside the structure and at the interfaces between the different materials. This symposium will accept papers that can highlight the following areas:

Fracture mechanics problems of structures from advanced materials, failure of composite structures under combined loading conditions. Comparison of computational and/or analytical and experimental methods in composite structures under different loading conditions. Interface problems in structures from advanced materials.

This session will focus on advanced non-destructive testing (NDT) and structural health monitoring (SHM) technologies, highlighting their role in transitioning from damage detection to proactive failure prevention. This session is open to all applications of all NDT methods (including but not limited to ultrasonic, acoustic emission, X-ray, thermography, eddy current, etc.) and SHM methods on any structures/components made of different materials, including but not limited to composites, concrete, ceramics, 3D printed materials, cultural heritage items. Presentations on novel applications of NDT/SHM techniques in various fields, such as aerospace, civil engineering, materials characterisation, etc. are expected. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, damage detection, identification, and localization, modelling/simulation, signal processing, and various industrial applications
 

The demand for lightweight, high-performance, and sustainable structures has driven a growing interest in hybrid and multi-material systems that strategically combine metals, polymers, and fibre-reinforced composites. This session focuses on the latest advances in the design, manufacturing, and characterisation of such structures, addressing challenges related to joining and interfaces, residual stress control, damage tolerance, and long-term durability. Contributions covering experimental and numerical approaches, hybrid joining techniques (adhesive bonding, welding, mechanical fastening), and integrated digital design methods are particularly welcome. The session also encourages works on multi-scale modelling, topology optimisation, and AI-assisted frameworks for the design and performance prediction of hybrid structures across aerospace, automotive, marine, and energy applications. The aim is to foster interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration toward next-generation lightweight, sustainable, and damage-tolerant structural solutions.
 

A short description of this session will be provided soon.

Understanding the fatigue behavior and properties of materials and structures is essential for ensuring their safety in engineering applications. Fatigue studies often require complex simulations, which can be resource-intensive and time-consuming. Recently, machine learning (ML) techniques have demonstrated significant potential in advancing fatigue analysis through accurate and efficient predictions. 
This session seeks to present cutting-edge research on applying machine learning approaches to investigate mechanical behaviors and properties related to fatigue. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

• Development of machine learning models for predicting fatigue life and damage evolution
• Data-driven analysis of mechanical properties under complex loading conditions
• Fracture surface and microstructure analysis utilizing machine learning methods
• Case studies demonstrating successful machine learning applications in fatigue analysis of components and structures 

We invite submissions from academia and industry that highlight innovative strategies and practical applications of machine learning in the field of fatigue research. We look forward to fostering discussions on the latest advancements and future directions in this exciting area. 
 

The session may cover processes, methods, materials and applications relative to the field of manufacturing , characterization , simulation and performance of fiber rei nforced polymer matrix composites.

Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

• Conventional methods of reinforced polymers manufacturing
• Fiber reinforce d polymer composites manufactured by Fused Deposition Modelling
• Material extrusion based printing methods for short and continuous fiber polymer
  composites.
• Characterization and performance of fiber reinforced polymers.
• Computational analysis of the mechanical properties of fiber reinforced polymer
  composites
• Computational simulation of sandwich type composites with 3D printed cores
• Effect of FDM process parameters on the performance of fiber reinforced polymers
• Polymer c omposites promoting sustain ability
   

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) has evolved from a rapid prototyping tool into a manufacturing technology capable of producing complex high-performance components for aerospace, energy, biomedical and structural applications. Despite significant progress, widespread industrial adoption remains limited by challenges related to process stability, microstructure control, defect formation, mechanical performance and qualification. At the same time, metal AM is emerging as a transformative manufacturing route, that enables unique microstructures and combinations of properties that are difficult or even impossible to achieve through conventional processing. This symposium emphasizes materials-centric research aimed at understanding and controlling microstructure, defects and mechanical performance in metal AM. It will highlight advances in process–structure–property relationships that support robust, repeatable and high-performance AM components, addressing both fundamental mechanisms and emerging processing concepts. The symposium covers, but is not limited to, contributions addressing the following topics:

•  Metal AM processes and underlying process physics including laser and electron beam powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition and hybrid manufacturing routes.
• Process–microstructure relationships governing melt pool behavior, solidification, phase transformations, beam shaping and residual stresses.
• Alloy and microstructure design strategies for AM including multimaterials and functionally graded materials.
• Defect formation and degradation mechanisms and their impact on mechanical and functional performance.
• Mechanical behavior of AM metals including fatigue, fracture and creep.
• Post-processing, in situ monitoring and data-driven approaches for process control, qualification and certification.
   

Lightweight materials (high-strength metallic alloys, polymers, composites, and hybrid materials) and structures play a central role in modern engineering systems, driven by the demand for improved performance, energy efficiency, and sustainability. Their reliable application requires a thorough understanding of mechanical behaviour and material properties not only in the as-produced condition, but also as they evolve under service-related degradation mechanisms.

This session aims to bring together experimental, computational, and data-driven contributions addressing the mechanical response, damage evolution, and failure behaviour of lightweight materials and structures across their lifecycle. Emphasis is placed on the influence of manufacturing routes, microstructural features, and environmental exposure on mechanical behaviour, performance and structural integrity. Contributions addressing degradation processes such as fatigue, corrosion, wear, and environmentally assisted damage, as well as their interaction with loading history, are particularly encouraged. The session welcomes studies spanning multiple length scales and methodologies, including advanced characterization techniques, multiscale modelling, and the use of material property databases and digital tools to support design, validation, and failure prevention strategies in lightweight engineering applications.

The development, analysis, and optimization of both advanced and additively manufactured materials and components require a deep understanding of their mechanical behavior, especially as influenced by microstructural features. Advanced manufacturing techniques, including additive manufacturing (AM), introduce unique challenges—such as high thermal gradients and process-specific defects—that may significantly affect material performance. This symposium will explore the intricate interplay between microstructure, defects, and mechanical properties across a range of materials including metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites. Emphasis is placed on understanding failure mechanisms under combined physics loadings, where mechanical stresses interact with thermal, environmental, or other physical forces to influence fracture behavior.

As the demand for materials that can survive extreme environments reaches an all-time high, High Entropy Alloys (HEAs) have emerged as a transformative solution of future exploration. Departing from the traditional "one-base-element" metallurgy concept, HEAs leverage vast compositional spaces and unique lattice distortions to achieve properties once thought mutually exclusive.

This session aims to bridge the gap between fundamental alloy design and industrial scalability. We invite researchers to present breakthroughs in High Entropy Alloy (HEAs) and/or Multi-Principal Element Alloys (MPEAs), focusing on how these complex systems challenge our current understanding of the topic.

Key points of interest can include (among others) the following topics:

• Processing Challenges and Additive Manufacturing (AM) Integration
• AI and High-Throughput Discovery Methods (ML, CALPHAD etc.)
• Microstructural Evolution and Stability Trends
• The "Cocktail Effect" in Extremes
• Mechanical Property Synergies
• Surface Degradation Phenomena and Environmental Resilience

Aluminum has been designated by the EU as a strategic and critical raw material because it sits at the core of, advanced manufacturing, defence, automotive, packaging, building, aerospace, defence, electrification and renewable energy technologies. From powering solar panels to enabling electricity grids, aluminum is indispensable to achieving the societal climate and resilience goals. Recycling aluminium uses just 5% of the energy required for primary production, effectively turning scrap into an energy “bank” and a valuable asset. There are, however, important barriers that delay complete circularity. Some of the major barriers include:

• inefficient and fragmented scrap sorting that leads to the accumulation of tramp elements (Fe, Cu, Zn, V, Ni, Pb, Na, Ca etc.) degrading material properties limiting use in high-performance, safety-critical products
• lack of impurity-tolerant alloy chemistries restricting the use of scrap-rich feedstock in high-performance products
• limited digital integration, with alloy design, process modelling, and sustainability assessments performed in isolation.

As a result, much of the recovered material is downcycled into low value cast products, constraining its potential to displace primary Al in demanding applications.

The session aims to stimulate discussion on the above issues and aims to attract high quality scientific presentations in areas such as:

• Advanced scrap characterization to improve sorting accuracy at industrial speeds.
• New and efficient sorting approaches, including robotic and AI-enabled scrap sorting
• Innovative melt refinement technologies to produce high quality secondary aluminum
• Advanced digital simulation and alloy design approaches for the development of impurity-tolerant and impurity-for-advantage alloy chemistries.
• Advanced characterization approaches to quantify the effect of impurities including chemical, microstructural and property characterization.
• 3D printing with recycled feedstock
• Building trust in recycled aluminum alloys: Digitalization for tracking CO2 and energy savings across the value chain
   

The prediction of material failure, encompassing fatigue, fracture, and progressive damage, remains a cornerstone of engineering design and structural integrity assessment. While traditional physics-based models have laid a solid foundation, they often struggle with complexity, multi-scale phenomena, and material uncertainties. The emergence of machine learning (ML) offers a powerful paradigm shift.

However, purely data-driven approaches can lack physical consistency and generalizability.
This session aims to spotlight the latest advancements in integrating mechanistic understanding with ML techniques to create robust, predictive models for failure analysis. We encourage submissions that leverage ML not as a black box, but as a tool to discover, enhance, or accelerate physics-based models. 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) for predicting crack propagation and fatigue life.
• ML-enhanced constitutive models for damage and plasticity.
• Multi-scale modeling bridged by machine learning.
• Discovery of failure-related governing equations from experimental or simulation data.
• Fusion of heterogeneous data (e.g., from digital image correlation, acoustic emission, microscopy) for damage state diagnosis and prognosis.
• Uncertainty quantification in ML-predicted failure modes.
   

We seek contributions that demonstrate a synergistic coupling between data-driven methods and the underlying physics of material deformation and failure, ultimately leading to more reliable and trustworthy engineering solutions against failure.
 

A short description of this session will be provided soon.

Aluminium is widely valued for its light weight, strength, durability, and exceptional recyclability—making it a cornerstone material for sustainable development and circular economy strategies. Unlike many materials, aluminium can be recycled repeatedly without loss of properties, enabling closed-loop material flows for green products across sectors such as construction, automotive, aerospace, offshore structures, and renewable energy.
 

his session will explore the evolving challenges and opportunities in recycled aluminium alloys, focusing on how increased alloying element concentrations from multiple recycling loops influence mechanical properties (strength, ductility, impact toughness), damage tolerance (fracture, fatigue, corrosion-fatigue), and environmental resistance (corrosion behaviour). Furthermore, the session will address how these compositional changes affect manufacturing processes, including casting, forming, extrusion, and joining technologies, and their implications for structural integrity and lifecycle performance.

Key topics include:

• Effect of impurity build-up and alloying variations on microstructure and performance.
• Corrosion, fatigue, and fracture behaviour of recycled aluminium alloys.
• Impact toughness and damage tolerance in demanding applications.Processing challenges: casting defects, formability, extrusion quality, and weldability.
• Recycling-oriented alloy design and optimization strategies for high-performance applications.

Residual stresses in engineering structures are caused by a variety of different mechanisms including manufacturing and joining methods and can dramatically influence the failure behaviour of materials. They can change the crack initiation, crack growth and fracture as well as affecting the wear, corrosion etc. It is known that, in general, tensile residual stresses have detrimental effects and compressive residual stresses are beneficial. Therefore, for integrity assessments of engineering components, it is important to obtain a detailed knowledge of residual stresses.
This session aims to gather research outcomes on failure when combined with residual stresses and offers an engaging exploration of current insights on qualifying / quantifying the effects of residual stresses on failure. It provides a platform for sharing expertise at macro or micro levels of any failure mechanism when residual stresses are contributing. It also aims to gather research papers on the life predictions models and life extension methods where residual stresses are considered. Papers on the measurement of residual stresses are also considered.

Very often based on lessons learned from aircraft accidents, design methods and processes for compliance demonstration with applicable standards have been established that are able to increase the level of safety for the occupants of an aircraft. The topic of the session covers new solutions to the “classic” structural design aspects for crashworthiness, such as structural integrity and energy absorption characteristics of the airframe, efficient restraint systems, minimized environmental hazards from loose or sharp objects, and reduced post-crash hazards from fire, smoke and fumes. Beyond these traditional crashworthiness considerations, and in view of new trends in aircraft design, the session also includes novel features of innovative propulsion systems and propellants such as electrical, mechanical, chemical, and functional safety of electric power trains or fuel cells and the storage and on-board handling of hydrogen. Finally, the session is also open to operational aspects, for instance, recovery systems or human factors.
 

Simulation based on computational solid mechanics models describe the response of structures, as a function of their geometry, loading, boundary conditions, material properties and manufacturing process. Digital Twin Validation i.e. 'the process of determining the degree to which a model is an accurate representation of the real world, from the perspective of the intended uses of the model', is of the most important aspects of engineering simulation. It is the responsibility of the digital twin users to perform sufficient validation of the models developed, by reference to experiments specifically designed for this purpose. Optical measurement and other relevant experimental methods have reached a sufficient technology readiness level that enable displacement or strain data over large areas or even the entire structure to be reliably captured during an experimental test and thereafter visualized and analyzed. Such developments have provided the background for a more comprehensive approach to model validation used in engineering design and evaluation of structural integrity, which could lead to optimized and less conservative designs. An important parameter in digital twins is the mechanical performance of the materials and how it is affected by the manufacturing process, especially when recycled materials are used. During the session, important recent advances on simulation model development, validation methodologies and the performance of recycled composites will be presented by researchers from industry and academia, focusing on validation of novel aircraft structural components and structural details.
 

The scientific session “Simulation of Mechanical Behavior”, will include numerical, analytical or combined numerical-analytical methods for modeling the mechanical response of materials under static, impact or fatigue loading conditions. Crack growth and fracture problems will also be investigated and modelling approaches ranging from micro to macro scale level will be examined. Comparisons of simulations using the methods with experimental results are highly encouraged.
 

This session welcomes a broad spectrum of studies addressing industrial challenges in aviation, particularly those driven by the urgent need for optimization or automation as well as broader sustainability goals. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Innovations in Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO)
• Emerging inspection and repair methodologies
• Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)
• Engineering failure analysis and characterization
• Reliability analysis
• Condition-based and predictive maintenance (CBM/PdM)
• MRO decision-support systems

Materials adopted in civil, mechanical, automotive, naval, aerospace, and industrial engineering applications are rarely subjected to constant amplitude loading. While standard fatigue assessment is often based on simplified loading assumptions, the structural strength and durability under real-world service conditions, specifically variable amplitude and spectrum loading, remain a major concern in the design of engineering structures. In order to fully optimize design and ensure reliability, understanding and estimating the mechanical performance of materials and structures under complex, random, or block loading histories is of paramount importance. Therefore, the special session entitled “State of the art approaches for fatigue analysis of materials and structures subjected to variable amplitude and spectrum loading” will focus on state-of-the-art theoretical, numerical, and experimental approaches to investigate the fatigue behaviour of materials and structures under variable amplitude loading. Special attention will be dedicated to emerging technologies, specifically the application of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms for life prediction and Digital Twin frameworks for real-time structural health monitoring and prognosis.
 

Most of engineering components can fail catastrophically in service due to surface degradation. The ever-increasing requirements for high performance, high productivity, high power efficiency, and low carbon footprint lead to more and more challenging service environments and pre-mature failure of industry parts and systems. This session will provide a platform for reviewing the recent progress in the development of innovative surface protection technologies, anticipating challenges and opportunities, and exploring future research directions in combating surface related failure through advanced surface engineering.   

The aim of this session is to explore emerging challenges in sustainability-driven design, with particular emphasis on multi-material solutions and function integration, illustrated through selected contributions. The session also addresses evolving design trends that are reshaping engineering practice.

In particular, topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Recent advances in sustainability-driven design methodologies
• Multi-criteria optimization approaches and integrated design methods
• Practical implementation of sustainability as a core design criterion in mechanical components

Composite materials play a central role in modern engineering systems due to their high performance and design flexibility. At the same time, their structural reliability, long-term durability and end-of-life management represent major challenges in the context of engineering against failure and sustainable development.

Failure behaviour in composite materials is governed by complex, multiscale damage mechanisms, strongly influenced by material architecture, environmental exposure, loading history and ageing processes. In parallel, increasing attention is being devoted to recycling and end-of-life strategies for composite materials, as recycling and reprocessing operations may significantly modify material integrity, damage evolution and residual mechanical performance, with direct implications for reliability, reuse and second-life applications.

Within this framework, particular attention will be given to sustainable composite systems, including bio-based, natural fibre reinforced and hybrid composites, in order to highlight similarities and differences in damage mechanisms, durability and failure behaviour.

This session aims to provide a focused forum on failure mechanisms, damage evolution, durability and recycling of composite materials, with emphasis on engineering methodologies for failure prevention, lifecycle performance assessment and reliable design. Contributions addressing experimental characterization, modelling approaches and application-oriented studies are encouraged, in line with the core themes of ICEAF on engineering against failure.

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) methods and architectures for damage detection and localization in structural components and assemblies (metallic, composite or hybrid). Techniques based on analytical or/and numerical modeling procedures. Statistical pattern recognition and Machine Learning based methods. Uncertainty quantification in the SHM problem accounting for environmental and operational variability. Approaches for generating structural digital twins.