Strength, Plasticity, and Fracture in Steels Revisited:
Towards Quantitative Bridging of Experiment and Simulation

ISSS 2021 is the Sixth International Symposium on the Steel Science. This symposium series started in Kyoto in 2007, and was followed by events held in the same city in 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2017. This is a project fully supported by the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan (ISIJ), aimed at presenting the latest cutting-edge results in iron and steel research and discussing them in depth. Topics are carefully selected to provide a good balance between academic seeds and industrial needs. The Sixth Symposium is organized by a committee consisting of about 20 active researchers from academia and industry, with four chairpersons: Todaka, Y. (Toyohashi University of Technology), Tanaka, M. (Kyushu University), Shibata, A. (National Institute for Materials Science), and Tsuji, N. (Kyoto University).

Mechanical properties are one of the most important aspects of steels. In recent decades, demand for higher mechanical performances of steel has grown, so it has been important to understand the essentials of mechanical properties, such as yield and tensile strengths, strain-hardening, ductility, toughness, and formability, from fundamental viewpoints. Therefore, the Second Symposium in 2009 focused on Strength, Plasticity, and Fracture in Steels: Fundamentals and Novel Approaches for New Demands.

For the continued development of advanced steels incorporating both strength and ductility (or toughness), in addition to understanding the fundamental mechanisms of deformation and fracture, macroscopic mechanical responses should be quantitatively correlated with microscopic deformation and fracture behaviors. Bridging of experiments and simulations is a promising approach to reveal the relationships between mechanical responses and deformation/fracture behaviors.

To advance discussions undertaken during the second ISSS and promote bridging of experiments and simulations, we are now planning to hold the Sixth Symposium from November 15, 2021, online. The title is Strength, Plasticity, and Fracture in Steels Revisited: Towards Quantitative Bridging of Experiment and Simulation. The symposium covers the following topics (mainly for high-strength steels). Research results concerning these topics will be presented and discussed from both fundamental and practical points of view. Oral presentations are limited to invited speakers to enable in-depth discussions.

Formability and Ductility
Toughness and Fracture
Hydrogen Embrittlement
Mechanisms Based on Dislocation Theory and Fracture Mechanics
Strain-hardening and Crystal Plasticity
Simulation and Modeling
Characterization of Deformation and Microstructure