About us
Partners, objectives and tasks of the new research network for material science
Three institutions have decided to closely collaborate in the field of advanced functional materials and functional structures:
- the Clausthal University of Technology (TUC) with multiple institutes oriented in material science
- the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt [German Aerospace Center] (DLR) with its institute of composite lightweight structures and adaptive systems in Braunschweig
- the Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing (BAM) with its specialized department for materials engineering.
For this purpose, the cooperation partners have created a new research association as legal base, the so-called
Campus for Functional Materials and Functional Structures
Thus being a scientific institution of TUC, this campus is directly assigned to the executive committee of the Clausthal University of Technology. The common objective of the cooperating scientists is the
realisation of structural systems for adaptive, efficient and tolerant high performance lightweight constructions.
Latter are the products of the development of functional materials and structures along a process chain, which includes the functional design, the structural design, the processing and the system integration.
Functional Materials and Functional Structures
In material science it is common to categorize materials into construction materials and functional materials. Construction materials, also known as structural materials, are non-activatable materials which are primarily used due to their outstanding mechanical properties (such as strength, stiffness, density, hardness, etc.). A classic example for this is steel.
Functional materials however possess properties which allow an energy conversion inside of the material on the basis of physical effects. They can be used directly as material-based energy converter, or it is possible to modify their material properties deliberately and reversible. Functional materials are not assigned to one single material group.