Sep 16, 2025
Dr. Martha Kalina receives Werner von Siemens Fellowship 2025 for her research on the modeling of fatigue cracks
Interdisciplinary research for sustainable and durable materials: Dr. Martha Kalina, until recently a Research Associate at the Institute of Solid Mechanics at TU Dresden, is one of the five outstanding young scientists to be honored by the Werner-von-Siemens-Ring Foundation as a Werner-von-Siemens-Fellow 2025.
As part of her dissertation at the Chair of Computational and Experimental Solid Mechanics at TU Dresden, Dr. Martha Kalina researched an often underestimated but safety-relevant phenomenon: the fatigue fracture of materials. Repeated loads cause microscopic cracks to form in almost all technical components over time, which propagate and ultimately lead to failure. Precisely predicting this crack growth is considered a major challenge - the processes are highly complex, lengthy and require enormous computing power. To solve this problem, Kalina has developed a novel phase field model that allows processes to be simulated with microscopic accuracy and numerical efficiency. This makes it possible for the first time to realistically simulate crack propagation, taking into account elastic-plastic processes, in an acceptable computing time. This means that the service life of safety-critical components such as aircraft fuselages, turbine blades or bridge girders can be predicted much more reliably.
The 31-year-old pursues a clearly interdisciplinary approach in her research: she combines physics, materials science, mechanical engineering and numerical mathematics. With her work, she is making a decisive contribution to making materials more sustainable and durable - with a direct impact on safety, resource consumption and maintenance costs. She achieved remarkable success early on in her career.
Dr. Martha Kalina studied Civil Engineering with a focus on material simulation at TU Dresden, where she completed her doctorate in 2024 on the topic of fatigue fracture. In addition to her research, she is actively involved in the specialist community and has already received several awards - including the Hanns Voith Prize and her nomination as a GAMM Junior.
About the Werner von Siemens Fellow award
The Werner-von-Siemens-Ring Foundation honors researchers who have already made impressive achievements at the beginning of their careers as Werner-von-Siemens Fellows. In addition to prize money of €10,000, they receive access to the Foundation's network, where they can exchange ideas, find inspiration and plan collaborations. The aim is to make promising talents visible at an early stage, to support them in the long term and to provide inspiration for their future careers and other talents. The Werner von Siemens Fellows are awarded every two years in December.
Contact:
Prof. Markus Kästner
E-mail:
Phone: 0351 463 43065
TU Dresden
Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering
Institute of Solid Mechanics
Chair of Computational and Experimental Solid Mechanics