Three dimensionalization techniques for epipolar views, and design process reconstruction.

Fatigue and cracking damage in many metal systems is magnified when it occurs in oxidising or corrosive environments. The mechanisms involved are frequently complicated since there can be multiple regime changes reflecting both the mechanics of the material and the chemistry of the environment. Several industries are affected by such problems and it is becoming increasing clear that existing assumptions when dealing with the early stages of environmental damage are insufficient for making useful predictive models of lifetime during design or safety assessments.

Several recent advances suggest there is scope for considerable advancement in our understanding of environmentally-influenced damage.
- Crystal plasticity methods for micromechanical models provide data on how complex microstructures interact to generate intergrain and interphase stresses.
- Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can now make real time measurements. This will provide accurate, small-scale data on microcracking and surface damage.
- Synchrotron X-ray methods for high-speed, high-resolution imaging and grain-scale strain mapping are now mature enough to be used on real systems. These methods are also phase selective and so generate maps of parent and product phases.

The combination of these techniques with a properly developed suite of micro-testing rigs will permit more accurate predictions of the effect of environment on crack initiation. Critically, this work is highly interdisciplinary and will need to combine inorganic chemistry with a knowledge of fracture and microstructure damage.