Component Performance
When manufacturing components from steel, the design for the specific application plays a decisive role. Especially the respective load case must be considered, as this has an enormous influence on the required material properties. Different mechanical properties are therefore relevant depending on the intended use, so that materials can be selected and optimized accordingly. Moreover, the respective loading type (cyclic, quasi-static or dynamic) is key.
The broad property profile of modern steels offers many opportunities to improve components. Therefore, it is the goal of the research group "Component Performance" from the Department of Integrity of Materials and Structures to uncover these unused potentials and to make them accessible to users. The possibilities of optimizing microstructures, as well as uncovering the application limits of these modern materials, play a major role in this.
For this purpose, the reliable methods of material characterization are applied in the working group and are complemented by new, cutting edge, computer-aided methods. By applying damage-mechanical material models, it is possible to perform a limit state analysis of the properties, to identify critical regions and to analyze the local material loading. By relying on statistically representative microstructure models (so-called SRVE), it is also possible to precisely unravel the influences of specific phases in particular, as well as microstructure in general. By working on both industrially and publicly funded projects, the cooperation with partners of the institute is always a priority. This ensures that the research is always relevant to the application.