WIAS successful in DFG Priority Program 2256

With three new projects, the Weierstrass institute is well represented in the DFG Priority Program SPP 2256 Variational Methods for Predicting Complex Phenomena in Engineering Structures and Materials. The priority program deals with mathematical tools from the field of variational analysis for applications in materials science, involving models of nonlinear elasticity, finite plasticity and phase transformations in general and the analysis of fracture, damage, motion of dislocations and the formation of microstructure in particular.

At the Weierstrass institute the following projects will be conducted: The project "Fractal and Stochastic Homogenization using Variational Techniques" (M. Heida) deals with the homogenization of elliptic partial differential equations on fractal geometries and combines recent methods of stochastic homogenization with results from fractal geometry. The goal of the project "Analysis for thermo-mechanical models with internal variables“ (M. Liero and A. Mielke) is to provide existence results, based on variational methods, for evolutionary material models, where the material is described by elastic deformations and temperature or other internal variables such as plastic deformation.

Finally, WIAS is involved in the project "Nonlinear Fracture Dynamics: Modeling, Analysis, Approximation, and Applications" (M. Thomas jointly with K. Weinberg from the University of Siegen and Ch. Wieners from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), where the focus is on the evolution of cracks in solid materials and the stability of numerical schemes.