The harmonic structure is a recently introduced concept paving the way for engineering metallic materials to achieve excellent mechanical performance. They consist of soft coarse-grained regions (Core) that are three-dimensionally surrounded by a connected network of hard ultra-fine grained regions (Shell). The interaction in these Core–Shell regions produces a synergistic effect, during plastic deformation, leading to superior mechanical properties that are extremely important in practical applications. The current review paper is aimed at providing a critical assessment on this novel concept of microstructure design. It also involves the identification and critical discussion of key issues which deserve additional studies. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

This study aimed at investigating the influence of microstructure on mechanical properties of Harmonic Structured (HS) pure-Ni compacts. The harmonic structure is a heterogeneous microstructure with a spatial distribution of fine grains (FG) and coarse grains (CG), that is, the CG areas (‘Core’) embedded in the matrix of three-dimensionally continuously connected network of FG areas (‘Shell’). The HS pure-Ni samples were fabricated by powder metallurgy route consisting of mechanical milling (MM) of plasma rotated electrode processed pure-Ni powder and subsequent sintering by Spark Plasma Sintering. The plastic deformation at powder particle surface increases with increasing MM time. As a result, after sintering, shell fraction also increases in the HS pure-Ni samples. It was found that the fraction of a “shell” area is an important parameter controlling the balance of the mechanical properties of the HS pure-Ni compacts. The HS pure-Ni with a higher fraction of “shell” area demonstrated higher strength and approximately similar elongation as compared to the homo Ni samples and HS pure-Ni samples containing low shell fraction. Moreover, the effects of strain hardening rates and strain hardening exponents on deformation behaviour of HS pure-Ni samples were also discussed. This Paper was Originally Published in Japanese in J. Japan Inst. Met. Mater. 83 (2019) 231–237.

Structured heterogeneous materials are ubiquitous in a biological system and are now adopted in structural engineering to achieve tailor-made properties in metallic materials. The present paper is an overview of the unique network type heterogeneous structure called Harmonic Structure (HS) consisting of a continuous three-dimensional network of strong ultrafine-grained (shell) skeleton filled with islands of soft coarse-grained (core) zones. The HS microstructure is realized by the strategic processing method involving severe plastic deformation (SPD) of micron-sized metallic powder particles and their subsequent sintering. The microstructure and properties of HS-designed materials can be controlled by altering a fraction of core and shell zones by controlling mechanical milling and sintering conditions depending on the inherent characteristics of a material. The HS-designed metallic materials exhibit an exceptional combination of high strength and ductility, resulting from optimized hierarchical features in the microstructure matrix. The experimental and numerical results demonstrate that the continuous network of gradient structure in addition to the large degree of microstructural heterogeneity leads to obvious mechanical incompatibility and strain partitioning, during plastic deformation. Therefore, in contrast to the conventional homogeneous (homo) structured materials, synergy effects, such as synergy strengthening, can be obtained in HS-designed materials. This review highlights recent developments in HS-structured materials as well as identifies further challenges and opportunities.