Profile

The Chair of Mechanics of Materials and Failure Analysis

One of the Chair of Mechanics of Materials and Failure Analysis’s main research areas is the investigation of damage mechanisms resulting from cyclic mechanical stress. This research is aimed both at characterising fundamental phenomena, such as extremely slow crack propagation under threshold-level stress and the interactions between the crack front and micro-structural property variables, as well as at investigating the influence of different production processes on vibration resistance. The Chair’s research in the area of material fatigue has been extended to include the area of fibre-reinforced plastics and their application in aviation and is currently being driven forward as part of a collaborative project funded by ERA-Net. Prof. Zimmermann’s Chair has a very well-equipped laboratory for characterising fatigue behaviour and analysing underlying damage mechanisms.

The lecture on material fatigue and reliability gives students an insight into a material’s behaviour under repeated mechanical stress, as well as into the physical processes responsible for the associated crack formation. Students will also learn about the wide range of factors involved in predicting the lifetime of a cyclically loaded component and how to investigate the vibration resistance of a material under laboratory conditions. The lecture on failure analysis teaches students how, amongst others, a careful analysis of fracture surfaces can provide first insights into the potential damage causes. The lecture also introduces as key topics different material-related damage causes, including thermally induced damage, wear damage and weld seam failure. Students are also given the opportunity to gain a deeper insight into and actively take part in the Chair’s current research activities in the course of their project work and final year dissertation.