Welcome to the Leijun Li group in Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta! Our group conducts award-winning research in physical metallurgy, welding metallurgy, and additive manufacturing by characterizing microstructure, measuring mechanical properties, and modeling the heat and mass transfer during non-equilibrium phase transformations.

Newest Publication: We comprehensively studied the evolution of texture in a welded pipeline steel (PDF). We found the base metal had major texture components of (113)[110], (112)[110], and (332)[113]. The as-welded weld interface had rotated Cube (001)[110] and Goss (110)[001] texture components. The post-weld heat-treatment reduced the texture intensities, but rotated Cube and Goss components were still dominating. These low-index, easy cleavage, slip systems likely have contributed to the lower toughness of some pipeline ERW welds.

Another News: We received the 2025 Warren F. Savage Memorial Award from the American Welding Society! This award recognizes "the greatest contribution to the understanding of welding metallurgy". Our paper in Welding Journal, November 2024: 325-s to 337-s was selected to receive this award. On the right is the page that shows the structure of an inclusion cluster and a model for the inclusion-interface migration and separation during the thermal cycles.

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