ERC Consolidator Grant · 2016
Microscopic Origins of Fracture Toughness
The resistance to crack propagation is undoubtedly one of the most important properties of structural materials. However, our current mechanistic understanding of the fracture processes in typical semi-brittle materials like steels, refractory metals or semiconductors is not sufficiently advanced to predict the fracture toughness KIc and its dependence on the microstructure, temperature and strain rate. Therefore, KIc is commonly regarded as a phenomenological material parameter for fracture mechanics models that require experimental calibration. The aim of microKIc is to study fracture in model materials in order to gain a detailed understanding of the microscopic crack-tip processes…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.