Conference Sessions

Advanced high-strength sheet steels (AHSS) are of increasing importance, particularly to the automotive industry, where their application enables reduced fuel consumption while guaranteeing passenger safety. Preventing the failure of AHSS-made engineering structures requires a large amount of expertise and a multi-disciplinary and multi-scale approach. This Symposium will focus on the latest developments in the field of AHSS, along with recent experiences with industrial implementation and end-user application performance. Special attention will be paid to the steel design to improve its resistance to engineering failure. Contributions are sought within the following areas (but not limited to):

• Existing and emerging strategies for metallurgical and microstructural steel design towards more failure-resistant steels;

• Simulation of metallurgical phenomena and multi-scale modelling in AHSS towards improved performance;

• Alloy-process-microstructure-property relationship in AHSS;

• Fatigue, fracture, damage and wear of AHSS;

• Welding of AHSS and the weld performance;

• Embrittlement phenomena in AHSS (liquid-metal, hydrogen, etc.);

• Novel approaches, methods, and tools for failure analysis.

Materials are very rarely used in isolation; they are either blended/mixed together or used in contact with other materials. The resulting interface characteristics can be complex and in many cases, an interface can constitute a distinctive (inter)phase with different properties to the bulk of the materials. Furthermore, the interfaces play a major role in the performance of materials for a plethora of engineering applications and can be the prime suspects for developing localised defects, initiating cracks that can propagate to the bulk of the material and lead to component failures. This session covers all relevant research on material surfaces and interfaces with a particular interest in interfaces of composite materials, treatment of fibres for incorporation in composites and physicochemical/engineering aspects of adhesion and bonding. Contact mechanics issues and coating technologies are also within the remit of this session.

This session welcomes a broad spectrum of studies related to investigation and quantification of chloride induced corrosion consequences on reinforced concrete structures. The topic of the session focuses on the multifaceted adverse effects of corrosion on the serviceability and bearing capacity of reinforced concrete structures. Beyond the traditional considerations and in the new era of sustainable development, engineering and scientific community is expected to add evidence to the progress achieved in assessing the corrosion damage of reinforced concrete structures. Topics to be covered in this Special Issue include:

• Monitoring of corrosion level via surface concrete cracking
• Measurement of critical chloride concentration in the laboratory and on site
• Assessment of corroded RC structures
• Modelling the corrosive factor in RC elements
• Coatings to enhance durability of structures exposed to chloride-induced corrosion
• Bond-slip degradation due to corrosion

This special session is planned to cover the latest advancements in the field of additive manufacturing (AM) of structural components, focusing on all ranges of AM technologies and AM materials. The multidisciplinary subject requires considering the effects of process parameters, material response, surface characteristics as well as microstructural aspects and geometrical features.

Applications range from aerospace and automotive to building and biomedical sectors. The aim of this session is to provide an international forum that brings together academic and industrial contributors to exchange ideas on recent innovations and developments of various AM technologies and to discuss the future opportunities and applications. Contributions covering either experimental studies or numerical developments are welcome. In particular, the subjects include but are not limited to: 

• Laser powder bed additive manufacturing (LPB-AM) 
• Direct energy deposition additive manufacturing (DED-AM)
• Cold spray additive manufacturing (CS-AM)
• Post-processing technologies for additive manufacturing
• Related applications

Sandwich composites are advanced materials that combine low weight with high stiffness, good strength and impact performance, characteristics which make them competitive alternatives to conventional composites for lightweight applications aiming to reduce environmental impact. In order to expand their applicability, the performance-to-weight ratio needs to be optimized. This requires sufficient understanding of the behavior of sandwich core materials and the core-face sheet interface under static and cyclic loading. The obtained knowledge will assist in the design of higher strength and more fatigue resistant sandwich core materials with improved damage tolerance. Under the proposed topic the current session aims to gather papers, which present new experimental results on the mechanical performance as well as numerical investigations dealing with the simulation of the mechanical response of sandwich composite materials. Quasi-static behavior under low and high strain rate conditions, impact response as well as fatigue performance of sandwich composite materials are amongst others, aspects that fit within the scope of the present session. 

This session aspires to present the behavior of certain material categories such as metals, ceramics and composite materials undergoing fracture, when exposed in extreme operation conditions. These conditions of course include the simple hydrothermal fatigue conditioning, space environment exposure, radiation exposure as well as hypersonic impact velocities.  Useful conclusions are to be drawn by examination of the fracture response of such materials, with respect to their mechanical and viscoelastic response as well.

Civil and environmental structures are exposed to many unforeseen risks resulted from environmental influences, human error and unexpected impacts. Some of these lead to situations that threaten extensive damage and even structural catastrophes. 

The session covers all issues related to the analysis of failure in engineering structures with their effective protection. 

Effective protection of building structures can be implemented in two groups of activities. The first includes preventive actions that counteract the effects of possible risks or removing minor damage that has already occurred. In this way, more significant damage is prevented and the threat of a major accident or catastrophe is eliminated. The second group of works includes repair and strengthening of already damaged structures to enable their continued safe use. In order for the applied actions to be effective, it is necessary to properly identify the causes of the observed problems, which makes it possible to eliminate them and, only then, to select the correct preventive works or repair methods. 

New materials and processes expand the design capabilities of multi-material systems. Research in the area of multi-material design and function-integration is becoming of great interest with new societal functions e.g. integrating recyclability and sustainability as functions in mechanical systems.

The aim of the session is to discuss new challenges for multi-material design and function-integration in multiple sectors to identify common challenges and enhance knowledge distribution on the example of selected contributions. In particular, the subjects include but are not limited to:

• Progress on multi-material design approaches
• Design-for and Design-from-recycling approaches
• Design for sustainability
• Simulation tools for function-integration

This Session refers to the various technologies of determining the structural health of steels and the technologies to rehabilitate them. The main methods and technologies are based on magnetic methods of monitoring and electromagnetic induction heating methods related to the rehabilitation process. However, other technologies may also be involved, such as non-linear acoustics for stress monitoring and electromagnetic hammering for stress rehabilitation.

Papers are welcome within this frame. The benchmark refers to stress tensor distribution monitoring on the surface and the bulk of steels, steel welds and products based on them, using magnetic parameters, such as magnetic permeability and Barkhausen noise. Other techniques, like non-uniformity in longitudinal sound velocity distribution can also be implemented. Furthermore, other, innovative solutions are also welcome. Such a technology can be the feedback system for automated stress rehabilitation (annihilation or strengthening) process in steel production and manufacturing, resulting in faultless steel production and manufacturing. Similar technology can also be implemented in installed steel structures (end-user applications). These methods have been already successfully tested in industrial environment in pipeline manufacturing, ship shaft testing, TRIP steel quality control, wires and rods etc.

The Session aims at promoting the faultless quality of the produced and manufactured steel and steel products, as well as the safety of life, property and environment during the life-cycle of steel structures, via the engagement of stress monitoring and rehabilitation in: steel producers (steel coil, rod producers etc.) and steel manufacturers (pipelines, metal forming etc.); transport (shipyards, shipping companies, railway, automobile industry etc.); electric energy stations including nuclear stations, as well as oil & gas industry (recovery, refineries, etc.); construction sector (metallic buildings, bridges, water pipelines etc.); inspection bodies (class societies, testing laboratories, regulatory bodies etc.).

Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, represents a novel manufacturing technique to rapidly fabricate complex components—their external geometry and internal multimaterial phases are extremely difficulty to controlled via traditional manufacturing technologies. Nowadays, AM technique offers access to components from nano to meter scale, tolerates a wide variety of materials (e.g., metal, polymer, and ceramics), provides rapid design-to-manufacture cycle at relative low cost, and emerges as a technique for many advanced industrial applications in aerospace, transportation, navel, energy storge, and biomedical. Although AM technique offers so many advantages, the mechanical behaviors (e.g., fracture and fatigue) of 3D printed components have not been fully understood, thereby forming a huge barrier for critical load-bearing applications.
This session aims to provide a state of the art in the field of structural integrity of additive manufactured and 3D printed components at different scales. Contributions—a collection of studies associated with analytical modeling, numerical simulation, and experimental study—on components fabricated by polymer and/or metal AM techniques are welcome.

Considering the latest developments in all the industrial sectors and the need for advanced and sophisticated composite structures, this section deals with the manufacturing processes for producing reliable composite structures with minimized defects content. It covers a large variety of manufacturing procedures, among which the thermoforming, injection molding, filament winding, wet molding, lamination, pultrusion, automated tape layering, aerosol jet printing etc., as well as a combination of them. Quality assessment, defect detection, mechanical characterization, and simulations towards the neat amelioration of the outcome of the fabrication process are expected in this session, aiming to go a step further to the so-called zero-defect manufacturing of composite materials and structures.
 

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) methods and architectures for damage detection and localization in structural components and assemblies (metallic, composite or hybrid). Techniques based on analytical or/and numerical modeling procedures. Statistical pattern recognition and Machine Learning based methods. Uncertainty quantification in the SHM problem accounting for environmental and operational variability. Approaches for generating structural digital twins. 
 

Characterization of materials in the nanoscale is a hot topic, gaining ever-growing attention from the community. Thin-films, multiphase materials, and semiconductors are only a few examples where advanced nanomechanics characterization techniques, such as nanoindentation, FIB, and nanodiffraction find application in Industry. Although, due to the large amount of data produced during testing, new and novel ways of data processing and post-processing emerged, lowering significantly the time-consuming process of data processing and the production of final results. As such, AI algorithms can be utilized, in order to further reduce the time from testing to the final results, in some cases even nullifying it, since if used correctly and with a good starting database, AI and ML models can predict and produce themselves the assessment of the properties of a material, as well as used in the detection of the materials deformation mechanism, i.e. by anomaly detection algorithms, or by statistics, i.e. Weibull analysis.

In this session, the scientific and industrial community will have a chance to exchange ideas and knowledge regarding the state-of-the-art advances in the field of nanomechanics, materials failure assessment, and  materials data analytics, including AI-driven solutions.

The session includes papers from the EU-funded project NanoMECommons (HARMONISATION OF EU-WIDE NANOMECHANICS PROTOCOLS AND RELEVANT DATA EXCHANGE PROCEDURES, ACROSS REPRESENTATIVE CASES; STANDARDISATION, INTEROPERABILITY, DATA WORKFLOW) 

Composites have evolved into primary structural materials for lightweight applications, mainly due to their excellent properties including specific stiffness, specific strength, corrosion resistance, fatigue life, wear resistance, as well as thermal properties. Yet, due to their inhomogeneity and anisotropy, they are often characterized by manufacturing defects and develop complicated failure mechanisms during service. The objective of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is to monitor the integrity of structures on a continuous basis during service and obtain valuable diagnostic (damage detection, localization, and quantification) and prognostic (prediction of the remaining useful life) information in real, or approximately real, time. The increased use and characteristics of advanced composite structures has rendered SHM technology necessary. While SHM technology has been widely used for certain types of composite structures, such as bridges and buildings, its application to aerospace composite structures has been limited, mainly due to reasons that include structural complexity and varying operating and loading conditions. These difficulties may be overcome by advanced SHM methodologies, capable of providing high performance and robustness, along with the aid of advanced simulation models and Machine Learning (ML) type techniques. The aim of the session is to focus on recent developments on SHM for composite structures by gathering contributions from various subfields, including:

• Vibration-based SHM 
• Fiber Optics-based SHM 
• Numerical Design and Evaluation of SHM systems 
• Multifunctional Materials and Structures 
• Uncertainty Quantification and Robust SHM
• Signal Processing/Diagnosis 
• Prognosis/Structural integrity
• Machine Learning Methods for SHM
• Design of Structures with Embedded SHM systems
• Preventive Maintenance

The correct treatment of the size effect is an unavoidable requirement to ensure safety of the components and structures. Interesting advances have been achieved in the size effect when FEA applications to face the complex cases raising in the current design. This, in turn, poses new challenges to be resolved due to the complex cases that are being presented in practice.

The concept of structural integrity requires a consistent use of probabilistic assessment techniques to achieve a reliable characterization of materials and components and their application to the failure (fracture and fatigue) design of components and structures.

In this session, contributions from engineers, scientists, consultants among others are expected contributing to the development and applications of models related to the probabilistic evaluation of experimental failure results, particularly related to size effect. The session will be a suitable forum to discuss the last advances on size effect and probabilistic fatigue assessment studies allowing a multidisciplinary discussion to be achieved.

The unique mechanical and functional properties of 0D, 1D, and 2D nanocarbons make them ideal candidates for use in composite materials. The difficulty of manifesting these intrinsic qualities at the macroscopic scale persists more than a dozen years from the Nobel-awarded experiments on graphene (Geim & Novoselov, 2010). The creation of useful, optimized structures depends on the continuous improvement of nanocarbon synthesis, functionalization, and processing techniques.

The Special Session intends to the exchange of knowledge and expertise on nanocarbon-based composite systems, which are currently at diverse levels of maturity, in order to advance the state of the art in understanding and applications. The synthesis and characteristics of composites including all varieties of nanocarbons, including nanotubes, graphenes, blacks, and related materials, are the main topics of the Special Session. Papers on polymeric, ceramic and metallic matrix systems are encouraged.

The Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) technology became a powerful tool when developing new processes, testing methods, sensors, instrumentation for application in vast industrial sector.  It has been showed that using processing algorithms permits the detection of defects in different component parts. The NDT application in manufacturing and in-service inspections guarantees the product's integrity, quality, and reliability.

Inspection and Maintenance (I&M) represents a large economic spanning across multiple sectors such as energy, water supply, transport, civil engineering and so forth. The use of robots to inspect and maintain machines and facilities in above-mentioned industries is crucial. Usually done manually, the automation of these operations will lead to an increase of efficiency.

In this context, the present session is opened for communication of research results in both, the non-destructive testing and inspection and maintenance of infrastructures in different sectors.

This session is open to all applications of all NDT methods (including but not limited to ultrasonics, acoustic emission, X-ray, thermography, eddy current, etc.) and SHM methods to any structures/components made from different materials, including but not limited to composites, concrete, ceramics, 3D printed materials, cultural heritage items. Presentations on novel applications of NDT/SHM techniques in various fields, like aerospace, civil engineering, materials characterization, etc. are expected. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, detection, identification, and localization of damage, modelling/simulations, signal processing, and various industrial applications.

The session covers fundamental and applied issues of environmental surface degradation and durability of materials at macro-, micro-, and nano-scale. Emphasis will be given on cutting-edge research, material design and development against degradation, understanding of degradation mechanisms and protection evaluation/design.
Main topics: 
- Structural stability under aggressive environments, structure-durability relationship, environmental effects on ceramics, polymers and composites, durability of concrete structures, durability of ceramics, and others
- Corrosion forms and mechanisms, coatings and surface engineering, tribocorrosion, high temperature corrosion, corrosion protection and inhibition, non-destructive testing, electrochemical techniques, corrosion of steel in concrete, corrosion modelling, marine corrosion, and others
- Wear types (sliding, abrasion, high temperature, fretting, lubricating wear), wear modes, understanding of tribological phenomena, wear testing, erosion-corrosion, solid particle erosion, wear of metals, ceramics, polymers and composites, and others
 

Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques offer a disruptive transformation in how products are designed and manufactured. The direct conversion of digital geometries into physical parts translates into less waste of time and material compared to traditional manufacturing processes. This peculiarity combined with the impressive evolution of AM technology has allowed the production of complex parts for different engineering applications and has positively impacted the overall economy, owing to the potential use of AM for prototyping, production, and repairing. Presently, it is used in many industries, such as aerospace, defense, automotive, consumer products, industrial products, medical devices, and architecture. In order to take full advantage of AM, understanding and estimating the mechanical performances of the related parts in load-bearing applications is of paramount importance. The structural integrity of AM parts is therefore a key topic to be investigated for supporting the spread of this technology. The special session entitled “Fatigue and Fracture of additively manufactured materials and components” will focus on the relationships between process parameters, post-fabrication treatments, microstructure, surface state, and statistics of defects. 

The session will be devoted to the emerging issues linked to sustainable economic development and renewable energy production, starting with talks about the development of new recyclable composites, structural materials for weight reduction, fire-resistant solutions obtained exploiting secondary raw materials.

The session will also cover the related issues of mechanical and functional performance evaluations in expected working environments (including accelerated  ageing tests), semifinished-materials development, upscaling up to mass-production and end-of life treatments.

Interest in additive technologies has grown swiftly as applications have progressed from rapid prototyping to the production of end-use products. Additively produced components can now use metals, polymers, composites, or other powders to make a range of functional or daily usage components, layer by layer, including complex or "lighten" porous materials that cannot be manufactured by other means. Despite much research and the results achieved, however, there are still unexplored problems in this area that cause components produced by the additive approach to fail in operation or after a short period of their use. The objectives of the session are therefore focused, but not limited on 

• Influence of manufacturing/technological conditions on the quality of 3D printed parts
• Mechanical properties of additively produced samples/components
• Analyses and simulations
• Failure/fracture modes and criterion
• Failure prediction and prevention
• Testing and defects detecting
• Application of AM parts in real practice
• The behavior of cellular materials and structures (their properties, manufacturing, testing, etc.)

The research field of the session is mainly focused on the interaction between microstructure and fracture related processes as it can be assessed by conventional and modern experimental analytical techniques, aiming to provide insightful comments and contributions towards the better understanding of damage evolution and fracture, that could assist to the expansion of operational lifetime of materials, components and structures, resulting in failure prevention. Case histories featuring industrial applications are also encouraged.

The session topics could be divided in to the following major representative groups:

1. Microstructure-induced failures

2. Fractographic analysis for failure investigation

3. Texture relationships and fracture

4. Genesis of damage at nano- and micro-scale level

5. Modeling of microstructure degradation processes with experimental validation

6. Failures in new and modern manufacturing processes

7. Failure prevention strategies based on microstructural design

8. Modern approaches in fracture identification and characterization (e.g. AI, machine learning)

Despite the monumental effort of previous generations of researchers dealing with fatigue life estimations, the process of defining and validating design methods to be included in the computational fatigue analysis cannot be understood as finalized. On contrary, the base of many effects concurring in fatigue damaging, be it, e.g., size effect, notch effect, roughness effect, surface treatment effect, stress multiaxiality effect, frequency effect, etc. was derived on data available in those times, where their simple aggregation and inclusion in the computational method validation were far from easy and straightforward. The fact that the modern trend of lightweight structures is accompanied by increasing dependency on ready-made computational fatigue solvers, which should be used in their design process, creates an explosive combination that calls for preventive action.

The validation studies showing applications of specific fatigue design methods and explaining the reasons for potential disagreements with experimental data are welcomed in this session, as well as any further innovative approaches to derive new solutions for fatigue design.

The objectives of this ICEAF sessions are fully focused on computational fatigue analysis:

• To provide new experimental data which could be used in validation studies.
• To validate fatigue estimation methods.
• To discuss the scale and quality of data sets used for validation.
• To evaluate how involvement of Artificial Intelligence could scale up such attempts.

Recent technological developments establish additive manufacturing (AM) technologies more and more amongst the favourite physical processing routes for producing complex shapes and multi-material components. Variations in physicochemical and mechanical properties of additively manufactured products originate mostly from surface conditions, defects, feedstock and build anisotropy. These properties affect the structural integrity and in-service performance with respect to corrosion, fracture, mechanical and wear behaviour. Additive manufacturing is often followed by post-processing such as heat treatments and hot/cold isostatic pressing, which would also influence/alter the microstructural features and subsequently the mechanical behaviour and structural integrity of the material.                

The aim of the session is to improve the understanding of the processing-structure-properties relation of additively manufactured materials as compared to materials produced by conventional processing, such as casting, rolling, extrusion, forging, etc. Emphasis will be given on the effect of process parameters on the microstructure, surface conditions, material texture/anisotropy and mechanical/environmental behaviour. Processing simulations and (micro) structural modelling are necessary to verify the performance of AM materials and products. Abstracts may thus refer to experimental and/or modelling studies relating various aspects of processing, microstructures, properties and performance of additive manufactured materials or components.

Topics to be covered*
The session addresses the following topics:
•    Modern and emerging AM processes and their effect on improved material performance.
•    Breakthrough performance and applications for AM materials.
•    AM processes and benchmarking of different process routes on the same material.
•    New materials produced by additive manufacturing.
•    New material and geometry design targeting to unique property combinations.
•    Hybrid and composite materials.
•    Advanced characterisation, modelling and testing of AM materials.
•    In-situ, real time monitoring of AM processing.

*    All material classes namely metals and alloys, polymers, ceramics, and composites are relevant to the scope of the session.

The session includes papers from the EU-funded project NanoMECommons (HARMONISATION OF EU-WIDE NANOMECHANICS PROTOCOLS AND RELEVANT DATA EXCHANGE PROCEDURES, ACROSS REPRESENTATIVE CASES; STANDARDISATION, INTEROPERABILITY, DATA WORKFLOW) 

This session welcomes a broad spectrum of studies that are addressing aviation industrial problems, not the least of which are related to a pressing demand for optimization and automation as well as a broader sustainability agenda. The subjects include but are not limited to: Advancements/Innovations in Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO), Aircraft systems health monitoring (SHM), Condition-based and predictive maintenance (CBM/PdM), MRO Decision Support Systems, Emerging inspection/NDT and repair methodologies, Advanced aerospace materials, Novel propulsion solutions.

Very often based on lessons learned from aircraft accidents, design methods and processes for compliance demonstration with applicable standards have been established that are able to increase the level of safety for the occupants of an aircraft. The topic of the session covers new solutions to the “classic” structural design aspects for crashworthiness, such as structural integrity and energy absorption characteristics of the airframe, efficient restraint systems, minimized environmental hazards from loose or sharp objects, and reduced post-crash hazards from fire, smoke and fumes. Beyond these traditional crashworthiness considerations, and in view of new trends in aircraft design, the session also includes novel features of innovative propulsion systems and propellants such as electrical, mechanical, chemical, and functional safety of electric power trains or fuel cells and the storage and on-board handling of hydrogen. Finally, the session is also open to operational aspects, for instance, recovery systems or human factors.

The process for the design of materials and devices is aimed at defining a nominal set of input parameters to achieve given performances in operating conditions. Nevertheless, the realization of the final product eventually results in an imperfect component, which can be low-performing or even fail to meet the requirements, due to the unpredictable effect of variables that intervene in the fabrication process (e.g. geometrical tolerances of the design parameters, fluctuations of the environmental conditions, variations of process-dependent quantities).
For this reason, several analytical, computational, and experimental approaches exist with the multiple purpose of assessing the impact of tolerances on selected quantities of interest, understanding t the most influential parameters, and determining the nominal set of parameters ensuring robust performances of the designed material or device with respect to uncontrollable fabrication-related variations.

This specials session welcomes contributions concerning the theoretical and experimental techniques adopted during the design phase of materials and devices to take into account the uncertain parameters, aiming at assessing the sensitivity of the component and achieving its robust design.

Reliable, generally accepted, and - if possible - easy-to-apply calculation guidelines for providing proof of safety and thus preventing failure processes are not only very helpful for the developing engineer but are absolutely indispensable against the background of increasingly stringent safety requirements.
The presentation of innovations in the field of guideline developments and their application are the subject of this session. Equally, contributions that demonstrate the practical benefits of the guidelines by presenting the experiences of industrial users are highly welcome.
The target groups are engineers from all branches of mechanical and vehicle engineering and aircraft construction as well as plant and apparatus engineering who are active in the test field, in development, design, and calculation as well as monitoring and maintenance of machines and plants in industry and research institutions.

Utilization  of various systems, in order to improve the aerodynamic efficiency of air vehicles.

This will basically be the usage of smart structures and the different  morphing technologies in the aircraft wings.

These applications will also be considered in order to alleviate the possible aeroelastic problems.

The session entitled "Recent advancements in welding processes " aims to cover the following topics:

• Phase transformations in weldments, microstructure-property relationships
• Solidification
• Sensing, control, and automation.
• Residual stresses and distortions: measurements, modeling, and mitigation
• Welding practices in industries
• Weldability of materials
• Weld failure modes & Design criteria  
• Failure analysis of welded structures 

Prolonging the service life of engineering structures by protecting against influences from aggressive environments is a challenging industrial need. On top, circularity of materials supporting the new paradigms of the European green deal calls for new material concepts covering the complete life cycle of parts.
This session is open to scientists and engineers working in applied research in the field of materials development and surfaces technologies designed to avoid corrosive degradation and damage. Aspects of protective coatings development and modelling, including aspect of recyclability and sustainability, builds a special focus of the event. 
Contributions on new approaches and results in materials modeling, optimization, business decision support systems and digitalization, as well as characterization methods (both destructive and non-destructive) applied to corrosion engineering and surface protection technologies are very welcome in this session. 
 

Fracture-mechanical properties of materials in micro- and nanoscale dimensions have become an important area of fundamental research, including the development and introduction of new techniques for micro- and nanomechanical testing as well as for high-resolution 3D imaging of defects in opaque objects. At the same time, there is an increasing need of industry to establish new risk mitigation strategies based on the understanding of microcrack evolution at small length scales that can cause catastrophic failure in 3D-structured systems and materials such as leading-edge integrated circuits, advanced battery electrodes and composites. New design concepts for bio-inspired materials, crack-stop engineering and the controlled steering of microcracks into regions with high fracture toughness will be discussed 

Sub-topics of the session will be:

• Materials design and modeling/simulation
• Micromechanical tests, microcrack growth, fatigue in metals and composites
• Microcrack imaging using microscopy and tomography techniques
• Interaction of microcracks with materials’ microstructure, energy dissipation mechanisms
• Controlled microcrack steering into toughened regions
• Design of crack stop structures, metal plasticity 
• Natural systems and bio-inspired materials