Biography

Professor Jesús Toribio graduated in Civil Engineering in 1982 and then in Mathematics in 1986. In 1987 he was awarded his PhD in the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and turned into Associate Professor in that Institution. In 1992 he became Full Professor and Head of the Materials Science Department of the University of La Coruña (at the age of 32, thus being the youngest Full Professor in the area of Materials Science in Spain). In 2000 he moved to the University of Salamanca (USAL) where is currently Full Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Head of the Fracture & Structural Integrity Research Group (FSIRG) of that Institution.
His research work is mainly concerned with fatigue and fracture mechanics, environmentally assisted cracking, stress corrosion cracking and hydrogen embrittlement/degradation/damage of metals and alloys (mainly cold drawn pearlitic steel wires for civil engineering and austenitic stainless steels for nuclear engineering and energy applications), covering theoretical, computational and experimental aspects. He actively participates in International Scientific Conferences, very often being a member of the International Advisory Committee, organising Special Sessions and Symposia, being Session Chairman or specially delivering Plenary/Keynote/Invited Lectures. Professor Dr. Jesús Toribio has published more than 600 scientific papers, most of them in international books and journals.
He is the Chairman of the Technical Committee 10 (TC10): Environmentally Assisted Cracking & Hydrogen Embrittlement of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS) and has been Director (2013-2017) of the International Congress of Fracture-The World Academy of Structural Integrity (ICF-WASI), being responsible of launching the Ibero-American Academy of Structural Integrity (IA2SI). Prof. Toribio has been awarded a variety of scientific research prizes and awards including: (i) UPM Young Scientist Award of the Polytechnic University of Madrid; (ii) METROTEC Award for the best Technological Research Project; (iii) Honour Medal of the Spanish Group of Fracture (GEF/SEIE) in recognition of his research achievements in the field of fracture mechanics; (iv) Fellow of the Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT) in recognition of leadership and outstanding work in engineering sciences; (v) Top Reviewer 2011 in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the quality of the Elsevier International Journal Engineering Fracture Mechanics; (vi) Fellow of the European Structural Society (ESIS Fellow) for his outstanding contributions to the art, science, teaching or practice of fracture mechanics and his service to the society; (vii) Honorary Member of the Italian Group of Fracture (IGF) in acknowledgement and appreciation of his outstanding achievements in the research field of fracture mechanics; (viii) Best Paper and Presentation Award in the International Conference on Energy Materials and Applications (ICEMA 2017) held in 2017 in Hiroshima, Japan, with a paper entitled: Numerical Simulation of Hydrogen Diffusion in the Pressure Vessel Wall of a WWER-440 Reactor; (ix) María de Maeztu Scientific Award of the University of Salamanca (800th anniversary during 2018) in recognition of academic trajectory and excellence in scientific and technological research; (x) Scientific Merit Award of the Portuguese Group of Fracture (PGF) in recognition of scientific contributions during his career.

Speech Title: Influence of Manufacturing Technology by Cold Drawing on the Anisotropy of Hydrogen Embrittlement of Cold Drawn Pearlitic Steel Wires: A Tribute to Donatello, Michelangelo and Bernini

Manufacturing technology by progressive (multi-step) cold drawing in eutectoid pearlitic steel produces in the material a preferential orientation of pearlitic colonies (first microstructural level) and ferrite/cementite lamellae (second microstructural level), thus inducing strength anisotropy in the steel in the matter of hydrogen embrittlement (HE), hydrogen degradation (HD) or hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC) and thereby producing mixed mode propagation, so that the resistance to HE/HD/HAC is a directional property depending on the angle in relation to the drawing direction.
While in the hot rolled steel (not cold drawn) the pearlitic microstructure is randomly oriented and the crack progresses in hydrogen by breaking the ferrite/cementite lamellae, i.e., a sort of hydrogen enhanced localized plasticity (HELP), in heavily drawn steels the pearlitic microstructure is fully oriented in the wire axis (cold drawing) direction and the predominant mechanism of HE/HD/HAC is the delamination (or decohesion) at the ferrite/cementite interface: hydrogen enhanced decohesion (HEDE). A link is established between the progressively oriented microstructure of the heavily cold drawn pearlitic steels wires and their progressive anisotropy of HE behaviour associated with hydrogen assisted cracking path deflection with a deviation angle increasing with the cold drawing degree.
Finally, a creative (non-conventional) relationship is established between the purely scientific issues related to the increasingly anisotropic HAC behaviour of the progressively cold drawn pearlitic steel wires and art issues in the matter of the association between sculpture and fracture mechanics. In this framework, (i) the curling of cementite lamellae after heavy drawing resembles the curves in the Bernini’s sculpture, so that the term Bernini stone sculpture (BSS) can be coined accordingly; (ii) the hydrogen damage topography (HDT) in the form of tearing topography surface (TTS) appearing in hot rolled or slightly drawn steels resembles, in certain sense, the Michelangelo stone sculpture texture (MSST); (iii) the hydrogen damage topography (HDT) in the form of enlarged and oriented tearing topography surface (EOTTS) resembles the Donatello wooden sculpture texture (DWST). Therefore the present paper represents a tribute to Donatello, Michelangelo and Bernini.