The activities are mainly dedicated to increasing the strength and fracture toughness of modern materials, increasing the fatigue life of modern structural and biocompatible materials by optimizing their microstructure and developing multilevel fracture mechanics as a general theory of fracture processes.
The strength and fracture toughness of modern materials are increased based on crystallographic structure and ab initio (quantum mechanical) calculations of interatomic bonds at weak points of the crystal structure, such as grain boundaries and structural phases.
Increasing the fatigue life of modern structural and biocompatible materials is addressed by researchers from the point of view of optimization of their microstructure. Development of multiscale fracture mechanics as a general theory of fracture processes, applicable to nano – micro – macro bodies.
The team boasts a long and successful tradition in ab initio calculations of mechanical and magnetic properties, as well as long-term activities in the field of analysis of topology and morphology of fracture surfaces, quantitative fractography and metallography, modelling of fatigue crack propagation (dozens of articles in professional journals, organization of regular renowned international scientific conferences focused on the structure of materials and nano/micro mechanics of materials). The strengths of this workplace also include several actively cooperating world-renowned centres.
Equipment
-
Excellent in-house and available computer infrastructure
-
Know-how: the creation of atomistic models of crystals with selected defects, modelling of deformation paths, experience with running ab initio calculations on supercomputers