ICSI25 - Advanced Structural Materials: Manufacturing and Performance

SMIC Special Issue - ICSI25 - Advanced Structural Materials: Manufacturing and Performance

Introduction  

Advanced structural and smart materials are increasingly shaping modern engineering applications due to the growing demand for lightweight, durable, reliable, and high-performance systems. Recent developments in additive and hybrid manufacturing, multifunctional materials, and intelligent structural systems have created new opportunities for tailoring material behaviour and structural response under complex service conditions. At the same time, these advancements have introduced important challenges related to process optimisation, damage evolution, durability, and long-term structural integrity.

This Special Issue primarily aims to publish selected and substantially extended papers presented at the International Conference on Structural Integrity 2025 (ICSI2025), held from 1–4 September 2025 in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. The issue seeks to capture emerging research trends at the intersection of advanced manufacturing, materials science, structural mechanics, and smart engineering systems. In addition to selected conference contributions, high-quality submissions aligned with the scope of the Special Issue are also welcome.

The Special Issue focuses on recent innovations in advanced structural materials, with particular emphasis on advanced manufacturing technologies, smart materials, damage assessment, and structural performance under complex loading conditions. It aims to clarify the relationships between manufacturing parameters, microstructure evolution, and mechanical behaviour, including durability, damage tolerance, and long-term performance. Contributions addressing metallic, composite, cementitious, and multifunctional material systems are particularly encouraged.

The scope includes experimental characterisation, non-destructive evaluation, numerical modelling, multiscale analysis, and data-driven approaches for process optimisation, damage detection, structural health monitoring, and performance prediction. Special attention is given to integrated methodologies that connect manufacturing processes with material behaviour and structural reliability. Research combining experimental and computational techniques to improve understanding of process–structure–property relationships are especially welcome.

A distinctive contribution of this Special Issue is its focus on bridging advanced manufacturing technologies with structural performance assessment within a unified framework. Rather than addressing additive manufacturing, composite systems, smart materials, durability, and damage evaluation as isolated topics, the issue highlights their strong interconnection and collective role in improving structural efficiency and engineering reliability. It further emphasises the integration of optimisation strategies, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital engineering approaches for next-generation structural materials and systems.

By bringing together contributions from academia and industry, this Special Issue aims to provide a coherent and timely perspective on how advanced processing routes and intelligent material systems translate into measurable structural performance and enhanced engineering reliability.

List of Topic Areas

• Additive and hybrid manufacturing of structural materials
• Process–structure–property relationships and performance optimisation
• Damage detection and non-destructive evaluation of advanced materials
• Numerical modelling and data-driven approaches for structural performance
• Durability, creep, and long-term behaviour of metallic, composite and concrete systems

Submissions Information  

Submissions are made using ReView. Registration and access are available at: https://ice-review.rivervalley.io/journal/jsmic
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jsmic#jlp_author_guidelines
Please choose article type "Themed issue Paper" and then select 'ICSI25 - Advanced Structural Materials: Manufacturing and Performance' from the drop-down menu on screen.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: ​15/05/2026​
Closing date for manuscripts submission: ​15/11/2026​
Closing date for abstract submission: ​15/08/2026​ - Submit your abstract here