Congratulations Dr. Chunan Li
News
Dr. Chunan Li successfully defended his PhD thesis: “Solute clustering and early-stage precipitation in Al-Mg-Si alloys”, on September 26th, 2025. The prescribed title for the trial lecture was “Development of High-Strength and Heat-Resistant Aluminium Alloys Based on Additive Manufacturing”. The doctoral work has been carried out at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where Professor Yanjun Li has been the candidate’s supervisor. Senior Researcher Calin Daniel Marioara, SINTEF and Professor Randi Holmestad, Department of Physics have been the candidate’s co-supervisors.
Professor Alexis Deschamps, Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble, France, served as the first opponent during the defense (present online), while Dr. Jostein Røyset, Hydro Aluminium, served as the second opponent. Associate Professor Xu Lu, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, NTNU was the administrator of the Assessment Committee.
The project has been funded by the recently finished NFR KPN project,:SumAl : Solute cluster manipulation for optimized properties in Al-Mg-Si based Al alloys (NFR Grant 294933), with Prof. Randi Holmestad as the project manager. SumAl has been a project running in parallel with SFI PhysMet, and with objectives closely related to those of SFI PhysMet. The focus of the SumAl project as well as the PhD project of Dr..Chunan Li has been clustering and early precipitation of hardening precipitates in AlMgSi-alloys. Dr. Li has combined atomic scale characterization by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) with atomic scale computer models to explore how clusters form and evolve into hardening precipitates. Previous work has shown that, depending on the alloy composition and heat treatment, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ clusters (in view of the subsequent aging behaviour), can be formed. In Dr. Li’s PhD project, it is shown that by carefully adjusting the heat treatment process, especially by adding a short “pre-aging” step, the formation of ‘good’ clusters can be promoted while the bad ones are avoided. This leads to materials that are both stronger and more ductile than those currently used in industry. The PhD thesis of Dr. Li consists of 4 journal papers, of which 2 are already published. The work of Dr. Li has opened up new ways to design aluminium alloys that are both strong and ductile—ideal for safer, lighter vehicles and more efficient manufacturing.
Dr. Li is now postdoc at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden.
