About us

Three institutions have decided to collaborate very closely in the field of advanced functional materials and structures:

• Clausthal University of Technology (TUC), with several institutes focused on materials science
• the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with its Braunschweig Institute for Fiber-Reinforced Composite Structures and Adaptronics, and
• the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) with its Materials Engineering Division.

To this end, the cooperation partners have established a new research consortium as a legal framework, titled

Campus for functional materials and structures

. This campus is thus a scientific institution of Clausthal University of Technology that reports directly to the university’s Executive Board. The common goal of the collaborating researchers is the

to realize structural systems for adaptive, efficient, and tolerant high-performance lightweight construction.

These are the result of the development of functional materials and functional structures along a process chain that encompasses functional design, structural design, processing, and system integration:

In materials science, it is common to classify materials into structural materials and functional materials. Structural materials are non-active materials that are used primarily for their outstanding mechanical properties (strength, stiffness, density, hardness, etc.). The classic example of this is steel.

In contrast, functional materials possess properties that enable energy conversion within the material based on specific physical effects. They can be used directly as material-active transducers, or it is possible to modify their properties in a targeted and reversible manner. Functional materials do not belong to any single material group.