LCM – Material Characterization Lab

The Materials Characterization Laboratory (MCL) offers a wide range of services for the mechanical and thermal analysis of materials used in scientific and technological applications.

With modern equipment and measurement techniques, the lab can analyze components and samples, even under simulated operating conditions, using both traditional and advanced structural and functional materials. Temperature-controlled testing can be performed to assess both global and local material properties. The lab is also equipped with non-destructive diagnostic methods, utilizing both point-based and full-field techniques.

The current research focuses on investigating fracture mechanisms in metallic, ceramic, polymeric, and composite materials—both traditional and innovative—relevant to engineering and biomedical applications. This is achieved by analyzing tomographic reconstructions of the material’s interior and the three-dimensional strain field around defects, notches, interfaces, and joints, even in-line and in real-time, downstream of the high-energy Materia beamline. The study explores the nucleation and propagation of defects in metallic materials under fatigue loading while also identifying the three-dimensional shapes that cracks can develop when subjected to mechanical loads.

The research also explores the mechanisms governing creep in polymeric materials, the distribution of defects and voids in ceramics and polymers, and the various failure modes of composite materials. This includes analyzing the interactions between intralaminar failures caused by matrix cracking, fiber breakage, fiber pull-out, and delamination phenomena resulting from impact events.

High-energy impact tests, conducted using the existing drop tower, will be used to validate current empirical and semi-empirical models and, if necessary, to develop new models for analyzing the fracture behavior of composite materials.

With the volumetric image analysis software currently being acquired, displacement and strain fields within mechanically loaded samples will be measured, along with the three-dimensional surface displacement field. This will be achieved by analyzing images captured using a 3D digital decorrelation system also in the process of acquisition. Measurements taken near notches, holes, and annular cuts—introduced to relieve residual stresses in the material—can be used to develop methods for measuring the three-dimensional distribution of internal stresses.

Finally, the matter metrology room will be set up and put into operation, enabling the study of material surface structures at the microscopic level, the execution of vibro-acoustic measurements, and the provision of calibration services for instruments measuring mass, dimensions, and temperature.

• PAGNOTTA Leonardo (Scientific coordinator)
• FILICE Luigino
• FURGIUELE Franco
• ARCURI Natale
• BRUNO LUIGI
• CARBONE Giuseppe
• FRAGIACOMO Petronilla
• GATTI Gianluca
• MALETTA Carmine
• MUNDO Domenico
• UMBRELLO Domenico
• ALFANO Marco
• BRUNO Roberto
• MORANO Chiara