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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Materials science and engineering researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have demonstrated that the rules of metal-bending aren't so hard and fast after all. They described their findings Aug. 9 in the journal Nature Communications.

Their surprising discovery not only upends previous notions about how metals deform, but could help guide the creation of stronger, more durable materials.

"This creates new opportunities for materials design," says Izabela Szlufarska, a professor of materials science and engineering at UW-Madison. "It adds another parameter we can control to enable strength and ductility."

Ductility is the ability of a metal to bend. Most approaches to increase a metal's strength do so at the expense of flexibility—and as metals become more resistant to bending, they're more likely to crack under pressure.

However, the researchers' new mechanism for bending might allow engineers to strengthen a material without running the risk of fractures.

It's an advance that holds particular interest for the United States Army, which has an urgent need for strong and durable materials in order to keep troops safe in combat zones.

"Professor Szlufarska has opened up an entirely new area for exploration for structural materials processing and design," said Michael Bakas, synthesis and processing program manager at Army Research Office in the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory. "By making such a high-impact discovery, Professor Szlufarska has potentially laid the technical foundation for the development of a new generation of advanced structural materials that could eventually be employed in future Army equipment and vehicles."

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