A review of the strengthening–toughening behavior and mechanisms of advanced structural materials by multifield coupling treatment

The application of an external field is a promising method to control the microstructure of materials, leading to their improved performance. In the present paper, the strengthening and toughening behavior of some typical high-performance structural materials subjected to multifield coupling treatment, including electrostatic field, electro-pulse current, thermal field, and stress field, are reviewed in detail. In addition to the general observation that the plasticity of materials could be increased by multi-external fields, strength enhancement can be achieved by controlling atomic diffusion or phase transformations. The paper is not limited to the strengthening and toughening mechanisms of the multifield coupling effects on different types of structural materials but is intended to provide a generic method to improve both the strength and ductility of the materials. Finally, the prospects of the applications of multi-external fields have also been proposed based on current works.