In addition to its educational activities, Department of Mechanics and Design of Materials (OMaDM) focuses on basic and applied research in the field of relationships between (micro)structural characteristics and utility properties of advanced metallic and non-metallic materials. Educational activities are focused primarily on teaching in the field of materials engineering, with overlap into other specializations (physical engineering, mechanical engineering technology). All activities of the department are based on experimental background with state-of-the-art equipment.

The research activities mainly cover the following areas:

• the influence of structural parameters and loading conditions on the fracture and deformation behavior of materials,
• properties of materials prepared by conventional and unconventional technologies (intensive plastic deformation, additive technologies),
• materials resistant to degradation by hydrogen (hydrogen embrittlement),
• functionally gradient materials, materials with internal architecture,
• failure mechanisms, including fractographic analyses.

The department cooperates closely with educational and academic institutions as well as industrial partners at both national and international levels. This cooperation is mainly focused on joint projects and expertise and assessment activities.

Research specializations of the staff

doc. Ing. Libor Pantělejev, Ph.D.

• Intensive plastic deformation (Equal-Channel Angular Pressing, ECAP) - the influence of the process on the utility properties.
• Selective Laser Melting additive technology – focus on Al alloys (structure and properties).
• Cold Spray additive technology – multi-material solutions (turbocharger components).
• Extensive cooperation with industry in solving production and operational problems, including investigation of operational degradation and structural failure (accidents).
• Fatigue behavior of materials (influence of loading history, cyclic plasticity, cyclic creep).

Ing. Libor Válka, CSc.

• Brittle fracture behavior of materials prepared by conventional and unconventional methods.
• Hydrogen embrittlement, the effect of hydrogen on the mechanical properties of conventionally and unconventionally prepared materials.
• Mechanical testing of metallic and non-metallic materials using standard and unconventional experimental methods (penetration tests on miniature discs, impulse excitation method).
• Micromechanistic aspects of fracture initiation of metallic and non-metallic materials.
• Mechanical properties of thin films prepared by additive technologies.

Ing. Josef Zapletal, Ph.D.

• Deformation response and load-bearing capacity of materials of test specimens, structures and structural units under quasi-static and dynamic loading.
• Research in the field of determining elastic constants and internal damping using ultrasonic methods and resonant excitation (IET).
• Unconventional testing of materials (use of small and miniature tensile and impact test specimens, resonant excitation, penetration tests on miniature discs, etc.).
• DIC (Digital Image Correlation) methods, their implementation in the testing process.
• Cyclic plasticity, fatigue resistance of materials prepared by conventional and unconventional methods.
• Hydrogen embrittlement.

Ing. Jakub Judas, Ph.D.

• Microstructure optimization from the perspective of increasing deposition efficiency in cold kinetic deposition (Cold Spray).
• Comprehensive analysis of metal coatings prepared by additive techniques.
• Microstructural and thermodynamic stability of high-strength aluminum alloys.
• Fatigue resistance of primarily non-ferrous alloys based on Al, Mg and Ni.
• Mechanical tests on miniature test specimens produced by additive methods.

Ing. Karel Němec, Ph.D.

• Influence of heat treatment and surface treatment of titanium alloys on the properties of the base material and welds.
• Properties of Ni superalloys during thermal and thermal-stress exposure.
• Mechanical properties of metallic materials.