The progress made in the recent years in the field of exothermic self-propagating high-temperature synthesis processing of various classes of advanced materials is reflected in the present Special Section of Advanced Engineering Materials.

The biocompatibility, magnetic susceptibility and mechanical properties of commercially pure zirconium and zirconium alloys are reviewed and their potential use as MRI-compatible implant materials is discussed.

A relatively new process using oxide reduction and expansion creates small pores within metal particles and has the potential to bridge the gap between efficiency and performance.

In this review broad “joining” processes of dissimilar metallic materials by both experimental and modeling approaches are summarized.

Finite element models with random void defects are constructed to analyze the progressive damage behaviour of C/C braided composites subjected to uniaxial tension.