Research

Mechanical characterization of materials on the meso and micro scale

To improve the physical understanding of scaling and size effects on deformation and degradation mechanisms in materials, the group is developing new measurement methods for mechanical characterization and reliability assessment. Here, the team works closely with the group for Meso- and Micromechanics at Fraunhofer IWM on. 

Programmable Meta-Materials

Metamaterials and programmable materials have the potential to introduce a paradigm shift in materials science and technology. By designing complex internal structures, metamaterials can be given extraordinary properties that the actual structural material does not possess. Metamaterials, for example, can be used to guide light around people. Programmable materials go far beyond this: the local structuring of a homogeneous material allows functionalities to be integrated into a block of programmable material that today can only be implemented with many components. Here we speak of a system. For a programmable material to become adaptive and replace a simple mechanical system, it must have several capabilities. It needs a sensor that makes changes in the environment perceptible. Further, it needs a logic device or processor that can, for example, monitor when a value is exceeded and then trigger an action. It needs an actuator and a controller to control it. And finally, it needs mechanical components that convert this actuation into, for example, a shape change or movement. The paradigm shift through programmable materials inverts the individual components into the inner structure. This means that the functionalities are integrated into the many individual elements (e.g. a component with 100x100x100 = 106 elementary cells). Devices made of programmable material contain these system components and therefore enable previously unattainable functional integration while reducing the number of components and thus the overall system complexity. This concept is also taken up in the biologization of materials. Here, there is an attempt to challenge the paradigm that a material should not change in the application if possible. However, in order to make materials adaptive, responsiveness such as that found in "smart materials" is not sufficient. Only in the combination of internal logic for evaluation and a state memory can a system adapt in the interaction.
Read on in the yearly report of SCHARF page 45. 

On the topic of programmable materials we cooperate deeply with the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Programmable Materials CPM as well as the cluster of excellence livMatS, and the two Carl-Zeiss-foundation projects IPROM and SCHARF. 

Further information on the research topics of the team you can find in projects and cooperation.