Research Programmes

• Advanced Nanotechnologies and Microtechnologies
  • Functional Properties of Nanostructures
  • Submicron Systems and Nanodevices
  • Experimental Biophotonics
  • Fabrication and Characterisation of Nanostructures
  • Development of Methods for Analysis and Measuring
  • X-ray Micro CT and Nano CT
  • Optoelectronic Characterisation of Nanostructures
  • Micro and Nanotribology
  • Plasma Technologies
  • Synthesis and Analysis of Nanostructures
  • Transport and Magnetic Properties
• Advanced Materials
  • Advanced Ceramic Materials
  • Materials for Sensors and Technological Processes Control Systems
  • Advanced Polymers and Composites
  • Advanced Metallic Materials and Metal Based Composites
  • Structure and Phase Analysis
• Structural Biology
  • Bioinformatics
  • CD Spectroscopy of Nucleic Acids and Proteins
  • CryoEM
  • Glycobiochemistry
  • RNA Quality Control
  • Nanobiotechnology
  • Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy
  • NMR Spectroscopy II
  • NMR Spectroscopy III
  • Protein/RNA Interactions
  • X-ray Crystallography I
  • X-ray Crystallography II
  • Structure and Dynamics of Nucleic Acids
  • Structure and Interaction of Biomolecules at Surfaces
  • Computational Chemistry
• Genomics and Proteomics of Plant Systems
  • Bioanalytical Instrumentation
  • Plant Cytogenomics
  • Functional Genomics and Proteomics of Plants
  • Hormonal Crosstalk in Plant Development
  • Metabolomics
  • Core Facility – Proteomics
  • Developmental and Cell Biology of Plants
  • Chromatin Molecular Complexes
  • Developmental and Production Biology – Omics Approaches
• Molecular Medicine
  • Medical Genomics
  • Molecular Oncology I – Hematooncology
  • Molecular Oncology II – Solid Cancer
  • Inherited Diseases I – Genetic Research
  • Inherited Diseases II – Transcriptional Regulation
  • Molecular Immunology and Microbiology
  • Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology
  • Genome Dynamics
  • Core Facility – Genomics
  • Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics
• Brain and Mind Research
  • Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
  • Molecular and Functional Neuroimaging
  • Experimental and Applied Neuropsychopharmacology
  • Psychophysiology
  • Behavioural and Social Neuroscience
  • Applied Neuroscience
• Molecular Veterinary Medicine
  • Molecular Virology
  • Molecular Bacteriology
  • Parasitology
  • Food Safety
  • Orthopaedics and Surgery
  • Animal Imunogenomics
  • Animal Cytogenomics
  • Mammalian Reproduction

Advanced Metallic Materials and Metal Based Composites

Prof. RNDr. Ludvík Kunz, CSc., dr. h. c.
Research Group Leader

THEMATIC RESEARCH FOCUS

RESEARCH AREAS

• Basic mechanisms operating in materials during creep, fatigue, brittle fracture and their combinations in relation to microstructure and their changes
• Theoretical studies of crack behaviour in metallic materials and components
• Multi-scale simulation of deformation and fracture processes, quantitative fractography and the prediction of fatigue life under multiaxial loading
• Solution of problems related to fatigue, creep and brittle fracture of both of currently applied and developed materials in industrial applications

MAIN OBJECTIVES

Properties of engineering materials have to be continuously improved in order to achieve higher performance, safety and reliability of engineering systems. The main objective of the research activity of the research group is to study the relation between material structure and material properties, mainly mechanical. The research will be focussed on fatigue, creep, their interaction and fracture properties of advanced materials and metal based composites used or currently being developed for application in energetic, transport and medicine. The expected results cover both the generation of material data necessary for safe and reliable application of engineering structures in service and the extension of basic knowledge on material damage mechanisms.

CONTENT OF RESEARCH

Advanced metallic materials and materials for energetics

To achieve the aims specifi ed in the preceding section, an extensive investigation of the properties (predominantly mechanical ones, but in specific cases also magnetic, electrical and others) of the selected advanced materials in relation to their microstructure will be carried out. Another line of activity will be the study of the mechanisms of degradation processes in advanced materials under conditions simulating service conditions.

The specific research activities include:

Mechanical properties of advanced metallic materials

The research will be focussed on the basic mechanisms operating in materials during creep, fatigue, brittle fracture and their combinations in relation to microstructural and structural development. The mechanical tests which will be used include creep tests, fatigue tests, tensile tests, fracture tests, as well as combinations of some of them, e.g. combined creep/fatigue tests. After the start-up period this work package will be suffi ciently equipped with the relevant testing machines so that the tests can be performed in a broad range of temperatures, strain rates and other external parameters. The corresponding know-how and software is already available. An integral part of this activity is represented by theoretical studies of crack behaviour in metallic materials and components. These studies will be based on standard computational methods such as FEM.

Microstructure, diffusion and thermodynamics of advanced metallic materials

The study of the structure of materials and selected thermodynamic and diff usion properties. “Structure” is understood over a wide range of length scales starting with atomic bonds, through crystallographic lattice and its imperfections, to the size and morphology of crystallites (e.g. grains) in material. After the completion planned as part of CEITEC, the research group will have almost all the necessary equipment and the corresponding software and know-how for the investigation. Some specifi c investigations will be carried out using the Core Facilities of CEITEC. Namely, this involves high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and secondary ions mass spectroscopy.

Multiaxial fatigue of advanced metallic materials

The research in the area will be primarily focussed on the elevated temperature behavior of advanced metallic materials used in highly stressed components of turbines and combustion engines, preferably in aeronautics. Nickel based superalloys or lightweight TiAl intermetallic alloys are often subjected to complex loading conditions due to external load transfer, abrupt changes in geometry, temperature gradients, and material imperfections. The acquisition of a computer controlled multiaxial testing system facilitating high temperature cyclic multiaxial straining allows the study of damage mechanisms and to obtain pertinent parameters characterising the resistance of theses advanced materials. Materials will be subjected to similar strain and stress histories as they encounter in critical locations of components and structures in the transport and energy production industries. The changes of the mechanical response will be recorded and the modifi cation of the internal structure and fatigue damage introduced by simulated complex loading situations will be studied using transmission and scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy in order to improve the resistance of new advanced materials and predict their fatigue life under most severe external conditions.

Multiaxial fatigue of materials with surface layers and shape-memory alloys

The research will be focussed on the multi-scale simulation of deformation and fracture processes, quantitative fractography and the prediction of fatigue life under multiaxial loading. The fi rst step of the activity is the planned acquisition of the testing system for thermo-mechanical biaxial tests of metallic materials with surface layers. It will be used for testing wires and cylindrical specimens made of shape-memory materials. This is necessary to identify the proper temperature and strain parameters of shape-memory actuators, stents and other components of advanced medical devices based on the shape-memory eff ect.

Ab initio calculation of lattice structure and mechanical properties

The research will be focussed on the theoretical prediction of lattice (phase) structure and mechanical properties of crystals based on the electronic structure calculations. Lattice parameters, elastic moduli and ideal strength of metals and shape-memory intermetallics will be computed and compared with available experimental data. The results will be used in multi-scale models of thermo-mechanical and fracture behaviour of advanced metallic materials. The calculations will be performed on computer clusters already available at Brno University of Technology and supported by computer equipment of CEITEC.

KEY RESEARCH EQUIPMENT

PLANNED RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE

Technology Units

• Analytical transmission electron microscope
• Creep laboratory
• Laboratory of brittle fracture
• Laboratory of fatigue
• Laboratory of multiaxial fatigue

CURRENT RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE

• For fatigue testing the following testing machines are available: Resonant system Amsler 10 HFP 1478, 100 kN, resonant system Amsler 2 HFP, 20 kN, push-pull, temperature up to 600°C, servohydraulic system Zwick/Roell Amsler MC25, two elecrohydraulic closed loop computer controlled testing machines MTS 810, and elecrohydraulic closed loop computer controlled testing machine MTS 880 } 100 kN.
• For high temperature creep tests custom-made creep machines allowing testing both under controlled stress and controlled load in temperature range up to 1000°C are available. Screw driven testing machine ZWICK Z50 Load up to } 50 kN, test temperatures from -196 to +1200 °C, screw driven testing machine ZWICK 1382 load up to } 200 kN, test temperatures from -196 to +200 °C, micro-testing machine MTS Tytron 250 Load cell up to } 250 N, instrumented impact tester PSWO 3 (300 J) and instrumented impact tester Zwick/Roell B5113.303 (50 J) are available in the laboratory of brittle fracture.

MAIN PROJECTS

• Correlation between structural changes, damage evolution and crack propagation behaviour of welded thermoplastics components (GC101/09/J027), Czech Science Foundation, 2009-2011, P. Hutař, Institute of Physics of Materials AS CR.
• Fracture damage mechanism of multilayer polymer body (GA106/09/0279), Czech Science Foundation, 2009-2011, P. Hutař, Institute of Physics of Materials AS CR, R. Valek, SVUM, Inc., E. Nezbedova, POLYMER INSTITUTE BRNO, Ltd.
• Role of oxide dispersion in fatigue behaviour of ODS type steels (GA106/09/1954), Czech Science Foundation, 2009-2012, T. Kruml, Institute of Physics of Materials AS CR.
• Microstructural design of high toughness materials (GAP107/10/0361), Czech Science Foundation, 2010-2012, B. Strnadel, Mining University – Technical University of Ostrava, I. Dlouhy, Institute of Physics of Materials AS CR.
• Fracture behaviour prediction based on quantifi cation of local material response (GAP108/10/0466), Czech Science Foundation, 2010-2012, I. Dlouhy, Brno University of Technology, H. Hadraba, Institute of Physics of Materials AS CR.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• KRUML, T., POLAK, J. Fatigue cracks in Eurofer 97 steel: Part I. Nucleation and small crack growth kinetics. Journal of Nuclear Materials. 2011, 412(1), p. 2-6.
• KRUML, T., HUTAR, P., NAHLIK, L., SEITL, S., POLAK, J. Fatigue cracks in Eurofer 97 steel: Part II. Comparison of small and long fatigue crack growth. Journal of Nuclear Materials. 2011, 412(1), p. 7-12.
• CHLUP, Z., SALAMON, D. Properties of porous multi-layered freestanding ceramic microchannels. Scripta Materialia. 2010, 63(6), p. 597-600.
• DOBES, F., PESICKA, J., KRATOCHVIL, P. Creep of Fe-18Al-4Cr alloy with zirconium addition. Intermetallics. 2010, 18(7), p.1353-1356.
• KUNZ, L., LUKAS, P., KONECNA, R. High-cycle fatigue of Ni-base superalloy Inconel 713 LC. International Journal of Fatigue. 2010, 32(6), p. 908-913.