Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D-printing, holds the potential to revolutionize the metals and alloys manufacturing sector through its ability to simultaneously (a) generate the material from powder/wire form, and (b) manufacture the desired part geometry in a layer-by-layer manner by locally melting the material using a moving heat-source.

In recent years, AM has begun to garner a lot of research interest to understand the process-microstructure-property-performance relationship of 3D-printed materials. There are several challenges that arise due to the novelty of the approach, and the relatively short time scales associated with the AM process in comparison to conventional forming and machining. Currently, researchers are striving to understand(i) the appropriate feedstock (in powder or wire form) properties (size, shape, composition) and the heat-source (laser, electron beam or electron arc) specifications, (ii) the optimum building approach (heat-source scan strategy, velocity, feed rate, etc.), (iii) the ensuing heat-matter interactions, i.e. the metallurgical and thermomechanical processes related to melting, rapid solidification, rapid cooling and successive thermal cycling of the heat-affected zone that results in the genesis and evolution of defects (porosities, cracks, surface defects, etc.) and the underlying non-equilibrium microstructure (wide grain size and morphology distribution, texture, chemical heterogeneities, etc.), and finally (iv) the link between these phenomena and the induced thermo-mechanical properties that determine the overall part performance (strength, ductility, fracture, corrosion resistance, etc.).

The purpose of the colloquium is to focus on advanced thermo-mechanical characterization and multi-physics and multi-scale modelling approaches to study non-equilibrium microstructures obtained by AM, with an emphasis on their genesis, evolution and their deformation and damage micro-mechanisms.