Materials performance and non-destructive testing

Mission

The activities of this group address the "long-term" material behaviour. The corrosion behaviour of materials as well as the damage development during mechanical or thermal loading is studied. The modelling of this behaviour using NDT-data is subject of the fundamental approach.

To monitor the damage development in materials, a number of non-destructive and advanced monitoring techniques are used: acoustic emission, real-time microfocus radiography, nano- and micro-computed tomography, eddy currents, ultrasound, optical fibre sensors etc.

New techniques to evaluate the nano-, micro and macro-scale damage (multiscale analysis) in polymers, ceramics, semiconductors, metals and their composites or cellular variants are used or optimised (high resolution X-ray computer tomography, the acousto-optic technique, optical fibres as smart materials...).

A special effort is devoted to the development of new tools (read prototyping including sensors) for in-situ quality control during production, process monitoring and structural health monitoring.