Investigating the creep, fatigue and fracture
of advanced metals, intermetallics and ceramics

Group Members

• Robert O. Ritchie, Ph.D., Sc.D. , Professor, U.C. Berkeley

• Elizabeth Boatman, M.S.
• David Xu, M.S.
  

• Hrishikesh Bale, Ph.D., post-doc
• Bernd Gludovatz, Ph.D., post-doc
• Valentina Naglieri, Ph.D., post-doc
• Elizabeth Zimmermann, Ph.D., post-doc

Former Group Members

Active Research Programs

• Metallic Glasses
• Hypersonic Materials
• Mixed Mode Fracture of Human Cortical Bone
• Fatigue and Fracture of Mineralized Biological Tissue
• Fatigue and Fracture of SiC at High Temperatures
  
• Fatigue and Fracture of Biomedical Materials
• Fatigue and Wear of Silicon Structural Films
• Fracture and Fatigue of Mo-Si-B High Temperature Alloys
• Grain Boundary Engineering in Promoting High-Cycle Fatigue Resistance
• Mechanisms of Fatigue and Fracture of Metal/Ceramic Interfaces
• NiTi Shape Memory Alloys for Biomedical Applications 
• Toughness in brittle materials: atomic-resolution studies of fracture in SiC

Archived Research

• Mechanical Properties of CVD Diamond Films 
• Mechanical Properties of Bulk Metallic Glasses
• MURI on the High-Cycle Fatigue of Titanium and Nickel Superalloys
• Gamma-Based TiAl Intermetallics
• Fatigue and Fracture of Intermetallic Laminate Composites 
• Statistical Fracture Modeling of Brittle Functionally Graded Materials
• Fatigue and Fracture Behavior of Titanium Silicon Carbides
• Experimental Assessment of Strain Gradient Plasticity Theories
• Reports of Current Research on Wear

Highlights 

• A Tough Pearl to Crack: Artificial Ceramic Mimics Mechanical Properties of Mother of Pearl
• Bone is Tough Where it Matters
• Understanding the Mechanisms of Human Bone (Text or Audio)
• Bone Quality May Have More to Do with Fracture Risk than Bone Quantity (Text or Audio)
• New Insight into Why the Elderly Suffer More Fractures (Text or Audio)
• Why Older People Suffer More Bone Fractures
• Atomic-Scale Studies of Ceramic Grain Boundaries
• A Conveyor Belt for the Nano-Age
• Atomic Clues for Tougher Ceramics
• Synchrotron Mesodiffraction: A Tool for Understanding Turbine Engine Foreign Object Damage

Journal Covers 

Bone Vol. 46 (6), June 2010 Barth, et. al. Effect of X-Rays on Human Bone	Nature Materials Vol. 10 (2), Feb. 2011 Demetriou, et. al. Damage Tolerant Glass	Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Vol. 25 (8), Aug. 2010 Diez-Perez, et. al. Microindentation for In Vivo Measurement of Bone	Physics Today Vol. 62 (6), June 2010 Ritchie, et. al. Plasticity and Toughness in Bone	Bone Vol. 35 Dec. 2004 Nalla, et. al. Aging of Bone

Education Outreach

• Nano*High Lecture - LBNL - April 2004

Opinion

• Whither 'nano' or 'bio'? Materials Today, Dec. 2005
  

Teaching

• Spring 2012: MSEc212-MEc225, Deformation & Fracture of Engineering Materials - Prof. Ritchie
• Fall 2011: MSE 113, Mechanical Behavior of Engineering Materials - Prof. Ritchie 

Links

• Materials Sciences Division , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Department of Materials Science and Engineering , UC Berkeley
• Department of Mechanical Engineering , UC Berkeley
• Materials Research Society (MRS)
• American Ceramics Society (ACerS)
• The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS) 
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
• ASM International
• MTS Systems Co. & Instron Co.

last update: 03/11