The concept of forced alloys is explained and application examples are described.
Systematic experiments with natural test pieces and by computer simulations show that,
under the working conditions studied (irradiation, crushing, cyclic loading),
the alloy may reach a stationnary configuration. Among the parameters controlling
this process, the working intensity is of particular importance. The introduced concepts
are applied to the study of the wear behaviour of fast train wheels (TGV). Wear
rates and out-of-roundness are found to be proportional to this intensity.