Preface to the Second Edition of Advanced High-Strength Steels—Science, Technology, and Applications

The first edition of the book on advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) was published in 2013. Since then, new research and development of advanced and ultra-high-strength steel grades, coupled with increased applications of those steels, are behind this current update. New information in this edition includes chapters or sections on sustainability, automotive applications, nanosteels, additive manufacturing, ultra-high- strength steels, and the Integrated Computational Engineering Approach to the development of new steels. In this book, AHSS refers to all steel grades with a tensile strength equal to or greater than 500 MPa (73 ksi) and have a complex microstructure of different phases, such as ferrite, martensite, bainite, and retained austenite. These steel grades include ultra-high-strength (UHSS) and gigapascal (GPa) steel grades with tensile strength at or above 1100 MPa (160 ksi). Composition and mill processing determine the strength level of the steel grade and its classification. The challenge for the UHSS and GPa steels is whether they can be cold formed despite their low ductility.