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Institute of Materials Science
Physical Metallurgy
The activity of the Physical Metallurgy Division covers a broad range of research on
structural and functional metallic materials, starting from the basic processes and
mechanisms governing metastable phase formation upon quenching from the melt as well
as solid state processing, including detailed microstructure investigations and structure
analysis ending with the description of the performance of components in technical
applications. Special attention is paid to understand the correlation between phases,
microstructure and physical properties of the material, also when considering the effect of
processing conditions on materials properties during and after rapid quenching, casting,
mechanical alloying / ball milling, powder consolidation, heat treatment, as well as shaping
and forming operations. The ultimate goal is to use this understanding to tailor new or to
optimize customized materials with improved properties for applications. The research is
thus spanning from basic scientific questions to technological research and development
efforts. Besides experimental work, also model-based property descriptions including
casting processes, coarsening and recrystallization, forging, sheet drawing and chip
formation, as well as microstructure-based modelling of mechanical properties are
performed. This allows to propose guidelines for further property optimization.
The materials under investigation are titanium-, magnesium-, and aluminium-based light
alloys, steels, multicomponent glass-forming alloys, and nanostructured/ ultrafine-grained
alloys. Their microstructure development and deformation behavior under different loading
conditions and the interaction with environmental conditions like corrosive media are
investigated. In 2005 progress in the area of microstructure-based processing for
properties was achieved in the fields of titanium alloys for various functional and structural
applications and novel nanostructure-dendrite or glassy matrix composites, which combine
high strength with large plastic deformability. The understanding of the basics of
solidification and mechanically driven phase transitions promises to lead to optimization of
alloys for a variety of applications.
The activities focussing on the improvement of the mechanical properties of metallic
materials are complemented by work related to the development of nanostructured
materials for use as functional materials with interesting properties for magnetic
applications, catalysis, hydrogen storage or as electrode materials. Again, this includes
structural investigations that provide the basis for the understanding of the physical
properties of such materials. For example, high-resolution scanning and transmission
electron microscopy combined with x-ray scattering techniques and magnetic or
electrochemical measurements allows to describe the nanostructure formation, gives
insight into the nature of structural inhomogeneities and helps to understand the resulting
physical properties of the materials.
The teaching activities cover basics of phase formation and stability (phase diagrams and
phase transitions, solidification behavior of materials), the mechanical properties of
engineering materials and the fundamentals of deformation and fracture as well as
quantitative microstructure analysis. Seminars and extensive laboratory exercises
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