The department deals comprehensively with the integrity of welded joints on an in-depth materials science basis. Special emphasis is put on the behaviour of welded joints under vibrational stress, especially under the aspect of the increased use of high-strength steels and aluminium materials, possibilities to improve the vibration resistance by means of optimised welding processes and by using post weld treatments as well as the fracture mechanical evaluation of welded steels.
A special focus in all questions is the improvement of the understanding of the development of residual stresses due to the interaction of metal-physical processes and production-related boundary conditions, the effect of residual stresses of different origin on the integrity of the welded joints as well as the development of strategies for the engineering-related use of residual stresses in component dimensioning. The basis for this are extensive possibilities for experimental residual stress determination and calculation.
