A sustainable society depends on high-performance, durable materials. To achieve this, we study the microscale damage & failure mechanisms by integration of micromechanical testing, microscopic characterization & numerical simulation.

Making materials durable by unraveling deformation and failure at the microscale.

My research group specializes in experimental-numerical micromechanics to unravel the micromechanical behavior of materials and material systems in order to achieve superieur mechanical performance and durability at the scale of application. This is done in two ways: 

1. by integration of micro-mechanical testing with in-situ microscopic visualization to elucidate the underlying deformation and/or failure mechanisms and
2. by intricate coupling of numerical simulations to experimental procedures using advanced in-house data correlation routines.

Topics of particular interest include:

• ductile damage and fracture,
• delamination and interface mechanics,
• hybrid and multi-phase materials,
• long-term degradation,
• thin film mechanics and MEMS,
• miniaturization and size effects,
• and flexible and stretchable electronics.