Physical Metallurgy
Head of the Group
Scientific Staff
Dr.-Ing. Daniel Schliephake (Head of the Materialography Lab)
Dr. rer. nat. Sandipan Sen
Raja Jothi Vikram, PhD (Fellow of the AvH Foundation)
M.Sc. Georg Winkens
M.Sc. Marcel Münch (LGF scholar; on leave to Kyoto University, Prof. Tsuji's Laboratory)
M.Sc. Liu Yang (CSC scholar)
M.Sc. Gabriely Falcão
M.Eng. Jan Lars Riedel (joint member with Fatigue)
M.Sc. Sri Rathinamani Ramdoss
M.Sc. Amin Radi
We get support by our APT experts at KNMF:
Dr. Torben Boll
Dr. Pamela M. Pineda Dominguez
M.Sc. Michael Eusterholz
Research Mission
The Physical Metallurgy group focuses on the development of metallic and intermetallic materials for extreme application conditions. The identification of suitable alloy compositions and tailoring of the microstructures is particular aim of our work.
The investigation and optimization of materials for engines operating at high temperatures is of central interest. Outstanding high temperature stability (mechanical and microstructural) in conjunction with reasonable toughness at room temperature as well as suitable oxidation resistance are the main objectives in this case. Furthermore, other extreme application conditions became relevant over time, for example deformation at cryogenic temperatures close to 0 K. The research activities all have the identification of fundamental mechanisms of the important phenomena, their relationship to materials properties and application to materials tailoring in common. In order to address these objectives, we routinely apply various materials synthesis techniques and scale-bridging characterization methods.
Synthesis of New Materials
The synthesis of new materials is based on the following methods that are available in house:
- cast metallurgy: arc melter and zone melting
- powder metallurgy: attritor grinding mill, planetary ball mill, hot uniaxial pressing
- heat treatments in various atmospheres
Characterization Methods
The characterization of mechanical and thermo-physical properties as well as microstructure of metallic and intermetallic materials is performed by means of:
- standard metallographic procedures
- mechanical testing under various loading conditions (tension, compression, cyclic, creep conditions, various atmospheres)
- thermal analysis: thermogravimetry (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
- focused ion beam (FIB) for microscopic preparation
- analytical scanning electron microscopy: energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)
- X-ray diffraction (XRD)
- 3D atom probe tomography (APT)
We congratulate Georg Winkens on the successful defense of his doctoral thesis. He was awarded the doctorate for his work on “Solid solution strengthening in single-phase Mo alloys”. In the framework of the RTG2561 funded by DFG, he contributed to improved understanding of the strengthening contributions by different dislocation types in refractory solid solutions.
He successfully implemented the recently developed models by Maresca and Curtin for the use within our research groups and the alloy development of the RTG. By the experimental synthesis of binary model alloys, he was able to test these modern models against others as well as to investigate the potential change of strengthening contributions by screw and edge dislocations depending on alloy composition:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-023-00353-8
Apart from the Mo based solid solutions subject to the RTG, he contributed to the application of the respective models to refractory high entropy alloys from the Ta-Mo-Ti-Cr-Al system. These recent results were published in the RTG special issue in Advanced Engineering Materials:
https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202301797
You may also see Georg's open access publications of research data and program codes on KIT's repository to improve the accessibility of our research results:
https://doi.org/10.35097/1784
https://doi.org/10.35097/1866
https://doi.org/10.35097/1786
https://doi.org/10.5445/IR/1000157208
https://doi.org/10.5445/IR/1000157205
We wish Georg all the best for his further career and look forward to discoveries in the field of physical metallurgy in the future.
The development and investigation of novel Mo-Si-Ti alloys has been one of our core competencies in recent years. These alloys are potential candidates for high temperature applications due to their balanced property portfolio of high temperature strength, oxidation resistance and lightweight potential. In our most recent study, we investigated the creep deformation mechanisms of a eutectic Mo-Si-Ti alloy together with our colleagues from Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Laboratory for Electron Microscopy #LEM. In contrast to earlier investigations, we found that creep at 1200 °C can be divided into two regimes dominated by (i) diffusion creep below 100 MPa and (ii) dislocation climb controlled creep at and above 100 MPa. An attempt has been made to correlate the microstructural changes occurring at different microstructural length scales with the nature of the creep curve at 1200 °C and 100 MPa. The creep curve shows a transient strain hardening region followed by a distinct minimum and then acceleration of the creep rate. Microstructural investigations using TEM revealed the formation of a high proportion of disperse (Ti,Mo)5Si3 precipitates in the solid solution, which led to significant strengthening in the transient creep regime. By simultaneously decreasing the initially high dislocation density in the solid solution, the diffusion creep contribution becomes more dominant to the effective creep behavior. At a minimum, the load and strain are also carried by the silicide phase, which undergoes plastic deformation. Continuous coarsening of precipitates and loss of precipitation strengthening in the solid solution and dynamic recovery in the silicide phase led to creep acceleration at strains above the minimum creep rate.
to Advanced Engineering MaterialsCompositionally complex alloys based on refractory metals (RCCA) are candidate alloys for future high-temperature applications. If Al is included in these alloys to reduce the density or to achieve oxidation resistance, long-range ordering often occurs. In our latest publication, we were able to show that this contributes significantly to the high yield strength. By combining macroscopic compression testing and nanoindentation measurements by our colleagues of IAM-MMI, we characterized alloys in the Mo-Cr-Ti-Al system over a large temperature range. Once a threshold of Al concentration is surpassed, the system crystallizes in the ordered B2 instead of the disordered A2 crystal structure, and a significant increase in yield strength of about 300 MPa and nanohardness was observed.
Mechanical testing on both length scales as well as chemical and structural investigations precluded the impact of several strengthening mechanisms that could explain this jump. Using state-of-the art modelling of solid solution strengthening in the complex A2 alloys, we were also able to prove that the increase in Al content cannot account for the observed jump. This leaves order strengthening as the only remaining mechanism to explain the increase in strength.
With order strengthening as now-proven relevant strengthening mechanism in RCCA, new alloy design possibilities open up to tailor alloy compositions for specific application profiles. Furthermore, the distinct modeling of strength of compositionally complex B2 alloys is not yet available.
to Advanced Engineering MaterialsDigitalization and Research Data Management
In order to address the increasing complexity of materials development and to increase the efficiency of materials characterization, our entire research activity is digitally documented in kadi4mat. We focus on documentation of complex synthesis from various raw materials and using several processing steps. Also materials characterization is recorded in detail. By contributions of Daniel Schliephake, Georg Winkens, Marcel Münch and Stephan Laube, we established the following framework:
- Research Structure
- Synthesis
- Processing
- Preparation
- Analysis
- Mechanical Testing
- Calibration
Furthermore, we make our research data publicly available along with our journal articles. In case, this did not take place, please do not hesitate to contact us for exchange of the research data.