Professor Deliang Zhang

Qualifications: B.E. (Northeast, China), D.Phil. (Oxford, UK)

Contact Details

• Calling +64 7 838 4466  then enter the extension
• Direct dialling +64 7 838  then extension (for extensions starting with 4)
• Direct dialling +64 7 858  then extension (for extensions starting with 5)
• Emailing username@waikato.ac.nz
• Using the campus map to locate their room

Research Interests

• Processing and mechanical properties of light metallic materials, especially titanium based alloys, intermetallic compounds and metal-ceramic composites
• Synthesis and mechanical properties of nanostructured materials
• Solidification and casting of aluminium alloys and magnesium alloys
• owder processing and consolidation
• Phase Transformations

Deliang is a materials scientist and a materials engineer with considerable experience in processing of metallic materials, especially in the areas of high energy mechanical milling, rapid solidification and casting, heat treatment of alloys and powder consolidation. Prior to coming to Waikato University in July 1996, he had spent a few years conducting research and teaching in Oxford University, UK, Carnegie Mellon University, USA, and The University of Queensland, Australia.

The metallic materials research group led by Deliang has established close international linkages with materials research groups at a number of universities and research institutes overseas and in NZ, and with industrial companies in NZ. The research group is currently undertaking the following projects:

Developing new processes for producing low cost titanium alloy powders, titanium based intermetallic powders and titanium based in-situ metal-ceramic composites. This project aims to develop new processes which can be used to produce titanium based alloy, intermetallic and metal-ceramic composite powders at significantly lower costs than the current prices of titanium alloy powders and titanium based intermetallic powders. The processes utilise Al and TiO2 powders and other materials as raw materials and involve a combination of several physical and chemical processes. The processes which have been developed are currently being scaled up and commercialised by Titanox Development Ltd (http://www.titanox.co.nz/).

Processing and mechanical properties of bulk nanostructured metallic materials and metal-ceramic composites. Nanostructured alloys and metal-ceramic composites are materials with grain sizes or the size of reinforcement phase particles being typically smaller than 100nm. These materials have the potential to offer high strength, good ductility, high fracture toughness and other interesting and potentially important physical and chemical properties. This research project studies the processing techniques and conditions which allow production of nanostructured alloys and metal-ceramic composites in powder and bulk forms, and the relationships between microstructures and mechanical properties of these materials. The main techniques used include high energy mechanical milling, hot pressing and thermomechanical processing techniques such as rolling, forging and extrusion.

Synthesis, microstructure and mechanical properties of bulk nanostructured gamma-TiAl based intermetallic based alloys. This project utilises high energy mechanical milling or a combination of high energy mechanical milling and thermal treatment to produce a variety of nanostructured nanostructured Ti/Al based composite powders and TiAl intermetallic based powders. The nanostructured powders are subsequently consolidated using several novel processes including cyclic extrusion/forging and equal channel angular pressing to produce high quality bulk nanostructured TiAl based alloys. The microstructures and their effects on room temperature and high temperature mechanical properties of such alloys are studied.

Casting of Mg alloys. This project studies the solidification behaviour and grain refinement of typical Mg alloys such as AZ91 (Mg-9wt%Al-1wt%Zn) and AM60 (Mg-6wt%Al-0.5wt%Zn).

Turning recycled copper alloys into high performance and high value metallic materials. Recycling of copper and copper alloys is a substantial business in industry. Currently in industry, the recycling process mainly involves sorting, melting, further alloying and casting. The alloys produced using this process are mostly only suitable for remelting to make castings, and thus their values are limited. This research project will introduce liquid atomization and novel powder processing steps into recycling of copper alloys, and the bulk solid materials and near net-shaped parts produced are expected to have high strength, good ductility and other valuable property attributes. The project will study the relationships between composition, processing condition, microstructure, mechanical properties and cost.

Students Supervised

ME

• Zhibo Zhang

PhD

• Paul Ewart
• Amro Gazawi
• Mingtu Jia
• Huiyang Lu
• Velluvakkandi Navaneeth
• Stiliana (Stella) Raynova
• Masleeyati Binti Yusop
• Dengshan Zhou

Teaching Commitments

Expertise

Materials technology; materials processing by using mechanical alloying; solidification and casting of alloys; processing and mechanical properties of nanocomposite materials; heat treatment of aluminium alloys.

Recent Publications

• Nadakuduru, V., Zhang, D., Gabbitas, B., Chiu, Y. (2012) Tensile properties and fracture behaviour of an ultrafine grained Ti-47AL-2Cr (at.%) alloy at room and elevated temperatures
  Refereed Journal Articles - Journal of Materials Science
• Kong, F., Xu, X., Chen, Y., Zhang, D. (2011) Microstructure and mechanical properties of large size as-cast Ti-43Al-9V-0.2Y (at.%) alloy ingot from brim to centre
  Refereed Journal Articles - Materials and Design
• Salman, A., Gabbitas, B., Cao, P., Zhang, D. (2011) The performance of thermally sprayed titanium based composite coatings in molten aluminium
  Refereed Journal Articles - Surface & Coatings Technology
• Gabbitas, B., Cao, P., Raynova, S., Zhang, D. (2011) Microstructural evolution during mechanical milling of Ti/Al powder mixture and production of intermetallic TiAl cathode target
  Refereed Journal Articles - Journal of Materials Science

View All research publications by Deliang Zhang

Science & Engineering - Creating the Future!