MINSUBSTRDYN. Subgrain structure development in rocks and metals

Overall Eurocores Activity Summary This EuroMinScI activity will bring together a network of 10 mineral and material science partners from academia and national research institutes with the aim to significantly improve our knowledge of dynamics of substructure formation and evolution in rocks and metals. The consortium is designed to break the traditional barriers that exist between the methodologies of experiments and modelling. It will integrate the currently fragmented research efforts undertaken in various EU-states, with the aim of fostering a viable network with a lifetime well beyond that of this activity. Six Early Stage Researchers and three Experienced Researchers will jointly address the dynamics of substructures within grains in polycrystalline materials. This CPR is pioneering in its integration of in situ experimental techniques with multi-scale numerical simulations, both research areas currently at the forefront of modern research. This combination is particularly powerful as in situ techniques provide the only experiments capable of providing coherent observations in the form of a time series. These time series are crucial for the validation and extension of numerical simulations, as the post-mortem examinations which are available from traditional experimental approaches provide significantly more limited constraints for modelling. This CPR will deliver new insights in questions including How do new (sub-) grains nucleate and evolve? What are the properties and behaviour of subgrain boundaries? How do processes at different scales interact, from dislocations to whole grains? In addition, significant progress in the modelling of substructure processes will be made by linking and developing hybrid models and interfacing different numerical approaches. Through a system of joint short courses, multilateral supervision and exchanges between the hosts, the young researchers will be exposed to different schools of thought and will have the unique opportunity to gain expertise in a wide range of experimental and numerical techniques and their combination.