On 3 July, Jakob Brunow and Felix Häusler received the prestigious Dietze prizes for their doctorate and bachelor's thesis.
Jabkob Brunow's doctoral thesis "Production, Scaling and Application of Nanostructured Metal Multilayers as Post-Weld Treatment" is the first to link the nano-world with the macro-world in structural engineering. Nanostructured cross-sections have superior material properties compared to homogeneous metal and have, for example, a much higher strength and fatigue resistance. Jakob Brunow is investigating nanolaminated cross-sections that are applied to welded steel joints, which are particularly vulnerable to fatigue. For the deposition of the nanolaminate, a process is used that also enables the large-area deposition of nanolaminates, the electrodeposition. In fatigue tests, he shows that post-weld treatment with nanolaminate is very effective in slowing down or even preventing fatigue. The low scattering of the results achieved is significant. With his work, Mr Brunow has laid fundamental foundations for optimising and certifying weld seam post-treatment with metallic nanolaminate (NMM) in the future, which is highly relevant for engineering practice. The work was supervised by Professor Rutner from the Institute of Metal and Composite Structures (B-08).
Felix Häusler's bachelor thesis „Gas source localization using swarm robotics
and nano-quadcopters“ deals with gas source localisation using robot swarms consisting of nano-quadcopters. Gas source localization (GSL) is crucial for mitigating the impact of industrial accidents and natural disasters, for example finding leaks in oil and gas facilities or survivors in collapsed environments. The use of swarms of nano aerial robots has the potential to significantly improve the safety and efficiency of GSL operations. The work is inspired by biological swarms, in particular colonies of social insects, to coordinate and optimise the performance of nano aerial robot swarms. The work was supervised by Professor Smarsly and Mr Stührenberg and was carried out in cooperation with the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Mr Neumann).
We congratulate the prize winners for their outstanding work.
