Chair for Materials Science and Engineering

Nicole Stötzel works in a project funded by the German Research Association (DFG), which explores the coupling between structural and functional fatigue of NiTi based shape memory alloys for actor applications. Functional fatigue describes the phenomenon of decreasing actor performance during cyclic use triggered by temperature cycling. This can also lead to simultaneous conventional structural fatigue starting with crack initiation which can precede failure. Nicole Stötzel performs a novel type of fracture mechanics experiment, where a miniature CT specimen with a constant load is forced into actuation by temperature cycling. Nicole Stötzel aims at clarifying, whether or not this type of thermal loading causes crack growth and damage accumulation and how this depends on the microstructure of the material.