Call for Papers

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

In Situ small-scale mechanical testing enables new insights into deformation and failure mechanisms of a wide range of materials including bulk materials, monocrystalline materials, thin films as well as low-dimensional materials. The direct observation of deformation phenomena in controlled geometries helps to unravel fundamental deformation processes. In addition, the influence of microstructure features (e.g. grain boundaries, interfaces, dislocation density) or crystal structure (e.g. glide systems, crystal anisotropy, elasticity) on the overall deformation properties of a material can be directly evaluated. Newest experimental techniques allow performing mechanical measurements under controlled external conditions including at high or low temperature, gas environments or under radiation exposure. In addition, advances in deformation devices including MEMS have established new areas such as in situ tribology or in situ fatigue and fracture experiments.

The current session will focus on recent advances in nanomechanical testing, including experimental techniques that allow measurements with high throughput, at variable strain rate or in-operando. A special focus will be set on developments in the field of diffraction and imaging methods that allow to extract quantitative mechanical data from local microstructure components or nano-sized objects under load at high spatial resolution. This includes new detector developments facilitating faster imaging or increased frame rates for diffraction pattern acquisition. New analysis routines including machine learning will be addressed that allow to obtain quantitative information from large datasets. Finally, the session will highlight the comparison of experimental data with results obtained from modelling using MD, DDD and crystal plasticity FE methods.

Topics will include:

• Fundamental studies in mechanical and indentation testing (crystal plasticity, phase transformations,...)
• In Situ techniques (synchrotron, electron microscopy, light microscopy, …)
• High throughput small scale testing
• Geometries for deformation, wear, fatigue and fracture testing
• Novel preparation methods for micro- and nanoscale objects for small scale testing (FIB, lithography, …)
• Advances in deformation testing devices including MEMS
• High temperature and environmental testing
• High resolution local strain and stress measurement during in situ Deformation​
• Modelling of deformation using MD, DDD and crystal plasticity FE methods

Invited Speakers:

• Erik Bitzek (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany)
• Dan Gianola (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
• Wendy Gu (Stanford University, USA)
• Yuichi Ikuhara (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
• Josh Kacher (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
• Sandra Korte Kerzel (RWTH Aachen University, Germany)
• Subin Lee (Max-Planck Institute for Iron Research, Germany)
• Marc Legros (Centre d’Élaboration des Matériaux et d’Etudes Structurales, France)
• Andy Minor (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
• Thomas Pekin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)
• Rajaprakash Ramachandramoorthy (Empa–Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Switzerland)
• Ruth Schwaiger (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany)
• Zhiwei Shan (Xi'an Jiaotong University, China)
• Mitra Taheri (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
• Qian Yu (Zhejiang University, China)
• Yong Zhu (North Carolina State University, USA)

Symposium Organizers