CD Laboratory for Interfaces and Precipitation Engineering

This CD Laboratory is concerned with predicting the properties of innovative steels and aluminium alloys based on key experiments, high-resolution characterisation techniques and computer modelling of the dynamics of their microstructure.

Steels and aluminium alloys are characterised by the fact that they are composed of several chemical elements. Iron forms the basis for steels and aluminium alloys. The properties can be changed and specifically controlled by adding other metals and chemical elements. These material properties are largely determined by their microstructure, i.e. by the grain size of the crystals that form during hardening, their orientation, their intermixing with grains of other elements and many other parameters. In order to be able to predict the properties of such alloys, researchers are particularly interested in the processes at the interfaces between the crystals. This has been made possible in particular by the fact that the resolution of characterisation techniques has improved massively in recent years and the computing power of computers is now sufficient to cope with large amounts of data. As a result, experimental characterisation, physically based modelling and the simulation of technological material developments can be brought together. This makes it possible to understand interface-determined mechanisms of microstructure development and thus to control the material properties of steels and aluminium alloys. In this way, highly complex materials consisting of several components and even several phases (aggregate states) can be simulated.

In the long term, the deepened understanding of the physics of microstructure development will support the highly efficient optimisation of material development. Furthermore, the reduced number of experiments required from the innovative design idea to its realisation will result in improved time and cost management.