Polymer composites are now used in structures expected to remain in service for decades, in environments considerably harsher than those of the laboratory: moisture and immersion, temperature cycling, UV radiation, chemical exposure, cryogenic temperatures and hydrogen, superimposed on sustained or cyclic mechanical loads. The matrix, the fibres and the interface then degrade through slow, coupled and only partly understood mechanisms, and the residual properties of an aged laminate may differ substantially from the design allowables. Design practice still relies largely on accelerated ageing protocols and empirical knock-down factors whose relation to real service conditions is uncertain, with over-conservative structures or unexpected failures as the result.

This session brings together experimental, modelling and data-driven work on the long-term behaviour of polymer composites, with the aim of moving from the characterisation of ageing towards quantitative prediction of service life. Contributions on all matrix systems and reinforcements, including bio-based and recycled composites, and from all application sectors, from aerospace and hydrogen storage to wind and marine energy, automotive and civil infrastructure, are welcome. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Ageing mechanisms under hygrothermal, thermo-oxidative, UV, chemical, cryogenic and hydrogen exposure
• Accelerated ageing protocols and their representativeness of real service conditions
• Interaction of environmental degradation with creep, fatigue and impact loading
• Characterisation of aged composites - residual properties and property retention
• Lifetime prediction methods: time–temperature superposition, physics-based, probabilistic and data-driven approaches
• Non-destructive evaluation, structural health monitoring and monitoring of ageing damage, prognostics and digital twins
• Design allowables, standards and certification aspects of long-term performance

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is emerging as a key technology for the resource-efficient manufacture, repair and remanufacture of large-scale metallic components. However, the complex thermal history inherent to WAAM gives rise to challenges related to microstructure, defects, residual stresses, geometrical control and anisotropic material behaviour, all of which may influence component integrity and performance. 

This special session will bring together researchers and industrial practitioners working across the WAAM value chain, from process development and material science to testing, modelling, qualification and industrial implementation. Contributions addressing experimental, computational and data-driven approaches are welcome.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• WAAM process development and process–material interactions
• Microstructure evolution and process–structure–property relationships
• Defect formation, cracking and defect mitigation
• Residual stresses, distortion and geometrical control
• Mechanical properties, fatigue, fracture and structural integrity
• Process monitoring, sensing and data-driven process control
• Modelling and simulation of WAAM processes and component
• Non-destructive testing and quality assurance
• Post-processing and heat treatment
• WAAM for repair, remanufacturing and life extension
• Qualification, certification and industrial implementation
• Sustainability and resource efficiency

This session focuses on corrosion and corrosion protection and determining materials performance throughout their service life. It will examine how degradation mechanisms evolve under realistic environmental and mechanical conditions, emphasizing the need for advanced protective strategies and multi scale understanding. The session also addresses digitally enabled materials degradation insights for corrosion management and extension of material durability.

Finally, it positions materials performance in-service evaluation within emerging Digital Materials and Product Passport (DPP) approaches, outlining how structured data flows can enhance traceability, sustainability assessment, and service life prediction.

This session provides an international forum for researchers and industry professionals working on non-destructive evaluation (NDE), advanced characterization, and predictive modelling of damage and failure in composite materials.

We welcome contributions that combine experimental techniques, data-driven approaches, and numerical modelling, with a focus on bridging laboratory developments and industrial applications.:

Topics include (but are not limited to):

• Advanced NDT/NDE methods (μCT, ultrasound, thermography, beamline techniques, vision systems)
• Quality assessment/assurance concepts for novel, hybrid or recycled composites
• Manufacturing-induced defects and damage evolution
• AI, machine learning, and digital twins for damage detection and prognosis
• Image-based and multi-scale modelling
• Predictive models for structural integrity and lifetime assessment
• Industrial applications in aerospace, automotive, energy, biomedical, and marine sectors
   

Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) represent a critical material class at the frontier of structural performance and lightweighting strategies across automotive, aerospace, and civil infrastructure sectors. This session brings together leading researchers and engineers to address the latest advances in AHSS alloy design, processing, mechanical characterisation, forming, joining, and in-service failure behaviour, with a strong emphasis on bridging microstructural understanding with industrial application. Contributions providing new understanding, advanced characterisation techniques, and modelling approaches related to the proposed topics are particularly welcome.

Scope & Topics of Interest:

• Alloy-Process-Microstructure–Property relationships in AHSS
• Forming, stamping and roll forming of AHSS: springback, edge cracking and FLD
• Non-conventional technological approaches for heat treatment of AHSS-thermal cycling, ultrafast heating and other )
• Microstructure evolution during manufacturing processes (phase transformations, recrystallization, recovery, etc.)
• Severe plastic deformation and ultra-fine grained steels
• Hydrogen embrittlement and delayed fracture susceptibility
• Fatigue performance and damage mechanisms under variable amplitude loading
• Joining technologies: resistance spot welding, laser welding, adhesive bonding and mechanical fastening
• Crashworthiness, energy absorption and impact response
• Corrosion behaviour and protective coatings (galvanised, hot-dip, PVD)
• Residual stress, work hardening and press hardening (hot stamping / PHS)
• Computational modelling, FEM, and data-driven approaches for AHSS
• Sustainability, recyclability and lifecycle considerations

This session presents recent developments in the application of digital twin technologies for the assessment, monitoring, and prediction of structural integrity, materials performance, and engineering processes. Digital twins enable the creation of dynamic virtual representations of physical components and structures that are continuously informed by experimental measurements, monitoring data, and computational models. By integrating sensing technologies, structural health monitoring systems, and data-driven modelling approaches, digital twins provide a powerful framework for understanding complex material behaviour and structural response under real operating conditions.  Contributions will address how integrated digital representations of physical assets can be used to capture the evolving condition of structures and materials throughout their operational life.

The session will highlight interdisciplinary research and applications will span a wide range of engineering domains, including mechanical, aerospace, civil, and materials engineering, demonstrating how digital twin frameworks can support improved design strategies, optimized maintenance planning, and enhanced lifecycle management of engineering systems. Case studies from different engineering sectors will illustrate how such frameworks can support improved reliability assessment, risk mitigation strategies, and long-term asset management.

Indicative subtopics (non-exclusive):

• Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and intelligent diagnostics
• Digital image correlation (DIC)
• Non-destructive testing (NDT) and evaluation methods
• Data-driven modelling and machine learning in engineering, durability and reliability of mechanical systems
• Uncertainty quantification and reliability analysis
• Fatigue and fracture under cyclic and dynamic loading
• Failure of metals, composites, and geomaterials
• Dynamic behaviour of mechanical and energy systems
• Experimental and numerical characterization of heritage materials
• Sensor fusion and real-time monitoring systems
• Multi-scale modelling of material degradation, damage evolution and performance assessment of advanced and smart materials
• Decision-support tools for engineering system management
• Applications in mechanical, aerospace, civil, and geotechnical structures
   

Defects such as shrinkage and gas porosity, oxide inclusions or the notorious oxide bifilms observed in High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) are a major cause of rejection of cast components. Occurrence and characteristics of such defects naturally differ depending on casting process, cast alloy and processing as well as other boundary conditions, as does their impact on part properties. Producing parts without any defect is basically impossible. However, rejection of parts is costly specifically if defects are detected only late in the manufacturing chain, and it adds to the environmental footprint of casting processes. Reducing defect related process scrap and improving defect tolerance are key challenges for increased process efficiency, improved structural reliability, and making metal casting process more sustainable.

Thus the main questions to be answered to increase yield, and the focal points of the present session, are the following:

• How and for what reason do casting defects form?
• How can they be detected using non-destructive methods?
• What are their effects on the performance of the cast part?

Understanding why and how defects form is a prerequisite for eliminating them - or at least limiting their amount.

Detection of defects goes beyond locating and identifying them. Finding the defects and pinpointing both their coordinates as well as their geometry can give access to new ways of describing defect populations, e.g. in terms of spatial arrangement and linking them to processing conditions and behavior of the final part under operating conditions.

Understanding the effects of defects in detail allows to define criteria that better distinguish between good parts and rejects than common approaches like maximum pore size or porosity level in critical areas.

The interplay of these three main aspects can pave the way towards new levels of quality and performance in cast parts. It may also facilitate a change in perspective from avoiding defects at ever higher cost to accepting their presence based on a deeper understanding of how they affect the relevant characteristics of the component in question.

The session encourages contributions that establish quantitative links between process parameters, defect population characteristics, and component performance under quasistatic, dynamic and cyclic load. Integrated approaches combining experiments, advanced characterization techniques (X-ray CT etc.), process simulation, and data-driven or machine learning methods for defect prediction and quality control are especially welcome. All casting processes and materials are addressed, however, a certain focus is placed on High and Low Pressure Die Casting (HPDC, LPDC) of light alloys (aluminium, magnesium). Similarly, effects of defects predominantly relates to structural performance, but may also include relevant functional properties such as electrical or thermal conductivity. 

The unique thermal history and layer-based fabrication inherent to Additive Manufacturing (AM) bring new aspects to the traditional understanding of material failure. This mini symposium focuses on the root causes of failure in additively manufactured components, linking AM processes with macroscopic properties, critical to part and component performance. We particularly welcome contributions from high-performance applications such as the aerospace, biomedical, and aviation sectors, wherein the related techniques rapidly gain ground. In this way, we aim to bring together academic researchers and industrial partners interested in the exploration of how AM-induced characteristics and defects affect the degradation of mechanical components in their working environment against different forms of loading (e.g., tensile, fatigue, creep, impact) or wear (erosion, corrosion, sliding wear), as well as the resulting fractographic characteristics.

The topics of the session will deal with metal, polymer, and ceramic AM techniques, with primary interest in (but not limited) to:

• Inherent defects and microstructural characteristics in Additive manufacturing
• Mechanical loading of AM components
• Surface degradation and engineering of AM parts and coating
• Fractography of AM parts
• Experimental and computational simulation of dynamic response and failure modes
• The effect of design and topology on the failure of AM components
• Effect of design and topology on dynamic performance of AM parts
• Dynamic behaviour, vibrations, and modal characteristics of AM components
• Damping and energy dissipation mechanisms in AM structures
• Vibration-induced fatigue, damage accumulation, and structural degradation of AM parts
• Novel AM-enabled applications in structural integrity, vibration mitigation and monitoring

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.

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