The scientific school "Strength and plasticity of materials under external energy impacts" of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Siberian State Industrial University", headed by Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Viktor Evgenievich Gromov, is well known in Russia and abroad. Under his leadership, in recent years, experimental research has been conducted in the following scientific areas: fundamental (physical mechanisms of strength and plasticity of metals, steels and alloys under external electromagnetic impacts); applied (physical materials science in modern metal forming technologies); methodological (hardware and methodological support for fundamental and applied research).

The paper considers the achievements of the scientific school “Strength and plasticity of materials under external energy influences” over the past 10 years. During this time, a large number of articles have been published in prestigious journals included in Q1 (Materials Letters, Journal of Materials Research and Technology, Applied Surface Science, Rapid Prototyping Journal, Materials Characterization, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, Surface and Coatings Technology, Engineering Failure Analysis, JOM, Metals), 9 monographs were also published in foreign publishing houses Cambridge, CISP Ltd, Springer, Taylor and Francis, Materials Science Forum LLC.

I am Professor Guoyi Tang, who has been working as the executive director of the Institute of Advance Materials at the Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, P.R. China between 2003 to 2018. As early as 1996, when I started to engage in the studies on the electro-plastic processing technology for metals in China, I have been already aware of the outstanding research results in the relevant fields from Russia. During the academic visit to North Carolina State University in the United States from 2001 to 2003, I carried out a research work in collaboration with Professor H. Conard, who is a world-famous leader in the electro-plastic research field. Meanwhile, for the first time Prof. H. Conard introduced me to meet Prof. Trosiky and Prof. Victor Gromov, who are outstanding professors in the field of electro-plastic research in Russia.

The scientific activity of Viktor Evgenievich Gromov, professor, head of the V.M. Finkel Department of Natural Sciences, began 50 years ago. He graduated with honors from the technological faculty of the Siberian Metallurgical Institute (today - SibGIU). After graduating from the institute, the position he got was not the highest - he worked as a senior laboratory assistant at the Department of Physics of the media. In old professorial photographs, V.E. Gromov is focused, serious. Viktor Evgenievich has not lost that youthful zeal, that love for science, which gives birth to discoveries. Laboratories, from which any road to science begins, are still the favorite place of Viktor Evgenievich Gromov. He travels, learns, is surprised, writes, educates a new generation of scientists, rejoices at their successes, pushes them to study. What did he dream about at that time? What did he think? Viktor Evgenievich likes to say about this: “You must be who you want to appear to be (esto, quod esse videris).” Perhaps this is Gromov’s first rule.

In addition to the aggressive internal environment of the human body, the durability of the implant is affected by the adaptive restructuring of the bone tissue, in which the stress concentration is localized inside the implant volume near the border with the bone tissue. This leads to loosening and failure of the implant, despite the fact that, in fact, the surface layer of the implant remains intact. There is evidence that coatings with a low Young’s modulus contribute to a change in the distribution of loads between the implant and adjacent bone tissue, thereby reducing the effect of adaptive restructuring. At present, the method of electroexplosive spraying of coatings of various systems, including bioinert coatings of Ti – Zr and Ti – Nb systems with a low Young’s modulus, is being intensively developed. A 2D model was developed to evaluate the effect of bioinert Ti – Zr and Ti – Nb coatings on stress distribution in COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.5. In the present work, for the first time, computer simulation of the stress-strain state of bone tissue located near an implant with an electroexplosive coating of the Ti – Zr or Ti – Nb system applied to its surface was carried out. As a result of the simulation, it was found that the stresses propagate more evenly compared to the case without a coating. Among the coatings under study, the greatest effect was achieved when modeling a system with an intermediate layer made of a bioinert coating of the Ti – Zr system. Despite the simplicity of the studied models, it is possible to judge with great confidence the suitability of using electroexplosive bioinert coatings in implants.

Quantitative and qualitative studies of the structure, phase composition, defective substructure, fracture surface of rail steel subjected to high-cycle fatigue to fracture with the initial pearlite structure and after electron beam treatment (EBT) in various modes were carried out. Layer-by-layer electron microscopic studies revealed the gradient nature of the structural-phase states, which is characterized by a regular change in the phase composition and parameters of the defective substructure with distance from the irradiation surface. The main factors and mechanisms that determine the fatigue life of rail steel in the initial state and after EPO were identified and analyzed. It was established that an increase in the fatigue life of steel irradiated with an electron beam is due to the formation of an acicular profile of the interface, which leads to dispersion of stress concentrators and contributes to a more uniform plastic flow in the substrate.

The parameters of the crystal lattice and the phase composition of the AK5M2 alloy samples surface-modified with titanium, followed by electron beam irradiation, were studied by X-ray phase analysis. The defective substructure of the samples was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. Based on the conducted tests of the AK5M2 alloy samples, surface-modified with titanium, optimal modes of electron beam processing were identified, leading to the formation of the structure characterized by improved mechanical properties in the alloy surface layer.

The parameters of the crystal lattice and the phase composition of the AK5M2 alloy samples surface-modified with titanium, followed by electron beam irradiation, were studied by X-ray phase analysis. The defective substructure of the samples was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. Based on the conducted tests of the AK5M2 alloy samples, surface-modified with titanium, optimal modes of electron beam processing were identified, leading to the formation of the structure characterized by improved mechanical properties in the alloy surface layer.

Using the technology of wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), a high-entropy alloy (HEA) CoCrFeMnNi of non-equiatomic composition was obtained. Using scanning electron microscopy, the structure of the destruction surface of HEA samples in the initial state and after irradiation with a pulsed electron beam with the following parameters was studied: electron beam energy density 10–30 J/cm², duration 50 μs, number of pulses 3, pulse repetition rate 0,3 Hz. The study of the destruction surface of the HEA after EPO, in addition to areas with a viscous mechanism of destruction, revealed areas with a strip (lamellar) structure. The area with a band structure increases with an increase in the electron beam density from 25 % at 10 J/cm² to 65 % at 30 J/cm². The diameter of the separation pits in the fracture bands varies within 0.1–0.2 µm, which is much smaller than the size of the separation pits in the rest of the HEA sample. After EPO, the thickness of the molten layer varies within (0.8-5.0) µm and increases with increasing energy density of the electron beam. The average size of crystallization cells formed during EPO depends on the energy density of the electron beam and increases from 310 nm at 15 J/cm² to 800 nm at 30 J/cm².

On March 6, 2022, Ivan Semenovich Kuznetsov, candidate of technical sciences, corresponding member of the Academy of Quality Problems, academic adviser of the Kuzbass branch of the Engineering Academy, lecturer of the Department of Metal Forming and Metal Science. EVRAZ ZSMK, an active inventor, turns 65.

April 26, 2022 marks the 70th birthday of the Head of the Department of "Metal Forming and Metal Science. EVRAZ ZSMK" of the Siberian State Industrial University (SibGIU), Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Andrey Rostislavovich Fastykovsky. Andrey Rostislavovich graduated from the Sergo Ordzhonikidze Siberian Metallurgical Institute (now SibGIU) in 1974 with a degree in "Metal Forming" and received the qualification of a metallurgical engineer. Fastykovsky A.R. connected his entire subsequent career with SibGIU, having gone from a research engineer to the Head of the Department of "Metal Forming and Metal Science. EVRAZ ZSMK", Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor.

March 29, 2022. Lyudmila Petrovna Bashchenko, executive secretary of the journal "News of Universities. Black Metallurgy", associate professor of the department of "Heat Power Engineering and Ecology" celebrates a beautiful birthday - 55 years! In 1984, she graduated from school No. 26 in Novokuznetsk, and received the badge "For Excellent Studies". Lyudmila Petrovna graduated in 1989 with honors from the Siberian Metallurgical Institute named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze (SibGIU) in the specialty "Catching and Utilization of Dusts and Gases". She was invited to graduate school at the department of "Heat Engineering of Furnaces and Gas Cleaning". In 1994, she was hired by the editorial board of the journal "News of Universities. Black Metallurgy" at the media as an editor.

March 29, 2022. Lyudmila Petrovna Bashchenko, executive secretary of the journal "News of Universities. Black Metallurgy", associate professor of the department of "Heat Power Engineering and Ecology" celebrates a beautiful birthday - 55 years! In 1984, she graduated from school No. 26 in Novokuznetsk, and received the badge "For Excellent Studies". Lyudmila Petrovna graduated in 1989 with honors from the Siberian Metallurgical Institute named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze (SibGIU) in the specialty "Catching and Utilization of Dusts and Gases". She was invited to graduate school at the department of "Heat Engineering of Furnaces and Gas Cleaning". In 1994, she was hired by the editorial board of the journal "News of Universities. Black Metallurgy" at the media as an editor.