In March 2025, Michael Meindlhumer from the Chair of Materials Physics received an ESPRIT grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The ESPRIT program aims to improve the skills and professional development of researchers at the beginning of their career by giving them the opportunity to lead an independent research project. As part of the project “The nanoscale stress field of interface cracks (InFraStress)”, Michael Meindlhumer will for the first time quantitatively characterize the stress field of interface cracks in a realistic complex material composite. The nanoscale stress and strain fields of interfacial cracks will be quantified under deformation using scanning electron microscopy and in situ synchrotron X-ray nanodiffraction. In addition, the experimental data will be complemented by finite element model calculations. In combination, these techniques should lead to a deeper understanding of interfacial cracks and validate existing models for the first time using quantitative nanoscale resolved stress data.
