FOM and M2i jointly investigate the failure of materials
The FOM Foundation and the Materials Innovation Institute M2i have signed a collaboration agreement for a new Industrial Partnership Programme: 'Physics of Failure'. The key question of this research programme is why materials fail under mechanical load. Research into failing materials at a microscopic level can contribute to new, stronger, types of materials. Over the next five years, FOM and M2i will work together with five companies on this research. The programme has a budget of 2.5 million euros.
Materials fail. Sometimes that is useful, for example if you open a tin can. However, most of the time such failure is not desirable and at times it is outright dangerous. Many disasters, from big such as the sinking of the Titanic to small such as broken points on a railway track, can ultimately be traced back to the failure of materials under a mechanical load. So an important aim in the continuous improvement of materials is to gain a better understanding of this failure behaviour and to control it. FOM and M2i have therefore joined forces for a new research programme that studies the failure of materials.
Programme leader professor Jilt Sietsma: "The research will mainly focus on iron alloys, an important class of materials that includes steel and cast iron. Although the failure of these materials ultimately manifests at the macroscopic level, the underlying factors occur at the microscale and nanoscale. However, our understanding of the failure of materials at such small scales is still very limited. We will therefore study the interactions between the small crystals that a material is composed of while the material is subjected to a mechanical load. We will also examine the behaviour of atoms and of defects in the crystals during mechanical loading and what the consequences of that behaviour are." The research team will make use of various microscopic techniques, tests with mechanical loading and physical simulations at different scales of length.
M2i
The Dutch innovation institute M2i seeks to connect companies with each other so that they can develop and apply fundamental knowledge about the behaviour of materials together with universities and other research organisations. The research programme into the failure of materials is a good example of this. Programme Manager Bert van Haastrecht from M2i: "This programme will lead to innovations in materials that are not just important from an economic perspective but will also contribute to societal themes vital for building up a sustainable society, such as an optimum lifespan, reliability and safety of constructions."
About the programme
In an Industrial Partnership Programme (IPP) FOM links academic knowledge to industrial ambitions by realising pioneering physics research in collaboration with companies. Within this new IPP, FOM will collaborate with ProRail, SKF, DAF, Tata Steel and Philips. These companies have been united within the network organisation M2i. This is not the first time that FOM and M2i (and its predecessor NIMR) have joined forces: from 1998 onwards they worked together in the research programme 'Evolution of the Microstructure of Materials' and more recently in the IPP 'Size-dependent material properties' (i15).
FOM and the companies involved are jointly contributing to the programme budget of 2.5 million euros. The programme has a duration of five years. Professor Jilt Sietsma (Delft University of Technology) will lead this new IPP (i35).
Further information
For further information please contact professor Jilt Sietsma, +31 15 278 22 84.
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